April chat for locals

[mellow2]

New thread for new month!

hi mellow, in answer to your question about dd's room.

at the moment i just have jumbo wall stickers and not much else. these ones www.prezzybox.com/products/index.aspx?pid=2874

but you can also get www.prezzybox.com/products/index.aspx?pid=2870

when dd is older I intend to use magnetic and blackboard paint on her wall so she can have a scribble area.

Ikea is always good for things like this I find.......

ps: you could go for this: www.prezzybox.com/products/index.aspx?pid=3982 pmsl

for active convos

Jojo GLTC and Letterbox should have decs plenty of other small independent shops too

btw sfx, thanks for you kind words yesterday wrt dd

bless you m'dear tis all true and you deserve it anyway

so dh wants to loose weight after his boss commented on it so we are both trying to make an effort slightly undermined by his baking but it was a very nice crumble

Thanks PC and sfx.

I like mini-paddle's undersea adventures' wall stickers. They look great.

mellow, they are great and they transported well when we moved. i didn't really believe the blurb that you could take them off and re-stick them but it turned out to be true!

at this rate they may well have to move again so we'll see how often they stand up to it!

I can confirm the stickers travel well internationally too. We have the animal ones for DS in Sweden and they are now up in his room here

Well, council said if preschool opts out then you aren't eligible for funding Back to the old drawing board again...

Thanks for info on bookstart, will ask at library next time I go.

Sfx - good luck with losing weight, I have a sweet tooth & cannot resist such goodies as crumble, all in moderation eh?!

Might head to park now as it is quite a nice out there and won't be dark at 4pm, yay!

shame about school SJ

dd seems to want to stay home today and frankly after yesterday I do not want another frustrating battle.

have fun in the park might be able to persuade her to ride her tricycle about the common garden

Our effort at decoration of the kids room extended to painting it bright yellow before we moved in, and putting up new curtains finally after 3 whole years. See the new curtains in my profile! (It's not hanging very nicely yet because it's quite new. Please somebody tell me it's nice. You won't believe how much trouble it caused ...)

My children's rooms are (or will be when I finish decorating ds's) stereotypically male and female (but neither would have it any other way. DD's is pink and lilac walls separated with a fairy border and fairy stick-arounds, a hand painted (by me) fairy chest, for toys, and pink heart shaped fairy lights aroung all door frames (3 out of room into bathroom and closet), a pink dream catcher and mosquito (sp) type drape over the bed.

DS has/will have blue walls (light up top darker below) with a vehicle freeze and stick arounds, and some fab heavy metal photoframes in the style of vintage cars from tj maxx for a bargain price (£5 each), but still has his handpainted teddy bear (again by me) chests of drawers. I am going to some how dispose of them as we no longer need them.

On another note we went to the park after school as it was such lovely weather. Ds trip (over his own bl**dy feet ) and managed to smack his face or rather his nose on the floor, cue a massive volcanic spurting nose bleed (imagine the excorcist scene but with a crying hysterical blood/snot coughing toddler) A bit late for a TMI alert I guess? . My friends with us were fab and help me calm and sort ds out and get him cleaned up. I was quite upset, but ds was fine after 2 mins (as they do). Unfortunately it was only after we left the park and quickly stopped at the local shop for a pint of milk that someone kindly pointed out the splatterings of blood all over my face . He is now sitting with dd having "medicinal" ice cream .

Sing - loving the curtains! Cov - what a stress for you, poor ds. I recall a similar incident with dd about a year ago and ever since always travel with a mini first-aid kit. Which of course I haven't needed to use since and will only need to use on the day I have forgotten to bring it. Your dcs rooms sound lovely. We have just decked dd's room out in pink butterfly wallpaper and it's fab! Have spent this arvo in the park followed by a complete sort-out back at the ranch - have not stopped for a second, I wonder if my exertions will bring on the baby and a nice speedy labour a la lemonaid (hopeful emoticon). SFX, could just eat a nice apple crumble now ...

evening all,

Slng, curtains look great!

We're also looking into those stickarounds for ds's room, going to paint it blue & then get the outer space ones. Good to know they do transport!

Speaking of ds, he's been having hysterics (laughing ones) in bed. Went up at 7, seemed to be asleep & then from 7.50 for about 20mins we've just heard him laughing away at something!

Thank you Ros and Bunyan!

DSs were giggling madly in bed, one egging the other one on, from about 7.15 to 8, until DH shushed them, after which DS2 could be heard to say "Oh DEAR".

Is anyone watching Delia?

Slng - curtains are v.funky!

COv - how scary for you, poor DS Lucky your friends were with you to help after the accident.

Park was great this afternoon, really warm & sunny, DS kept asking to go to the cafe though

Bunyan - have you much longer to wait?

Ros - I wonder what made DS giggle? v.cute

sfx - yes pity about the school, I really liked the staff and the setting. Will visit a few more to compare, maybe DS can go there 1 session/wk and go somewhere else which is funded the rest of the week...

Mellow - well done on transition to own room, enjoy your freedom!

Cannot watch Delia, don't like this series, sorry!

dh's diet continues - he is now baking bread

SFX, DH's diet sounds like my kinda thing! Oh, you can't beat the aroma of home-baked bread, mmmmmm. SJ - good luck with the school, it's all v difficult isn't it. Everytime dd spies a cafe she announces that she "is hungry" - she is just like her mother and enjoys coffee and cake too much! Am due in 2.5 weeks by the way. I hate this "Delia" series too - it's rubbish! We went to Kneller Gardens yesterday, just opposite Crane Park - it's really nice!

sfx - does that mean home-baked bread for breakfast or does the diet prescribe eating up everything at one go so as not to leave anything as temptation?

I've only watched last night's Delia. (Un)fortunately I think I already know most of the cheats for cooking Southeast Asian food...

Bunyan - I think I know where Kneller Gardens is but do you know if there's parking there? I'm meeting a friend who lives just round the corner from there. Does anyone know if Bushy Park sand pit is open now? We've got Friday off and DS1 has requested outing to Bushy Park.

Kneller Gdns is just off Meadway, Twickenham - and you can park on Meadway itself so nice and easy - one side of the road is Kneller Gdns, the other side is Crane Park. All new to me but I never mind travelling for a good park! Don't know about the sandpit at Bushy, won't be venturing there until post-bump. Mind you, today's weather is looking decidedly patchy ...

good morning all

dh was under strict instructions to eat and take away most of his bread, he did leave a couple of small rolls - so lovely waking up to fresh bread baking yum yum

bunyan are you sleeping at all?if I recall those last couple of weeks seem to go on forever in a daze.

ros - did ds wake up at a reasonable/ civilized hr today?

KC hope you are feeling better

must go out with dd at some point today.

morning all

grotty day, am quite glad to be at work in weather like this!

had to wake dd again this morning at 7am. Mind you her bedtime has gone back to nearly 8pm so.......

Neighbours were moderately noisy all evening. Seems he's got himself a TV now and had his mates round. Midnight saw me thumping on the floor and things did quiet down after that.

I am really in a quandry over what to do. Looking at what I could afford it would seem to be a no-brainer.

Forgive me while I brain dump and maybe you lot can comment:

Pros:
2 or 3 bed house, possible conservatory/garage. potential to extend. good size rear garden.
small market town near station or village location few mins drive to station.
small local schools - mostly grade 3 but improving.
10 mins drive to GPs. Additional babysitting/emergency cover/better family contact for DD/me closer to help them if necessary.....
30 - 45 mins to Oxford (culture/shopping)
30 - 45 mins Milton Keynes (shopping/leisure/poss job ops)
1 hr train B'ham (poss job ops)
unlikely to end up next door to drug dealer
possible reduction in cost of living

Cons:
Moving again.
Unsettling for dd (new house/new childcare etc)
Realistically speaking a 2hr commute (but only 2 or 3 days per week).
Increased travel costs.
Might feel a bit isolated and out of the loop.
small market town can be a bit chav.
too close to parents
dd might develop a country accent
secondary schools might be poor
longer journey to south/west & any airport
would lose even more touch with sporadic friends.
would miss Kew Gardens and you lot
won't have time to make new friends due to working full time now
worried I will lose even more focus on my work by being further away. on the other hand, this could be a spur to make me concentrate adn work harder.

gah! HELP

PC,
It seems to me your mind is more or less made up. The only issue, I think, would be the travelling. For 3 days a week, you wouldn't see much of dd.

SFX - sleeping - nope!! My body has very kindly decided to get me used to sleepless nights well in advance. Eating wayyyyyyyy too much of all the wrong things namely choccie and cakes! V bad.

PC, re: a move - would the travelling be that bad? Would you get a seat on the train, do you know? In which case time to work/mumsnet/read/sleep! Would the cost of living definitely go down, do you think or would it just be the mortgage cost that would reduce? Would you end up driving more, how much is the season ticket? With regard to unsettling dd - well, of course you would have concerns about that - but she is still so small that I don't think it would be a massive deal and of course if she would be seeing more of the GPs then perhaps this would help. The house possibilities sound great, as do potential work opportunities. Would there be social networking opportunities through school? It's a big decision. Is this the only area you are considering?