Secret Garden

[BriansMum]

Hope this works, a shiny new thread girls - come on in .

Deb -I am very sorry to hear about your uncle. Love to you and your family.

Gig - big boy seems much improved today. No nursery this morning and a quiet day at home seemed sensible. Little one is a bit up and down. May need the Calpol later on.

Hopefully the solicitor will ensure all is ok with vendor. Solicitor is my cousin's husband which helps (I hope).

I think that they will check deeds etc as part of house sale. The only thing that occurs to me is whether vendor leaves some bad credit history attached to house. I am never quite clear how this all works. But know you can get tainted by previous occupiers having a bad record - your solicitor may be able to help?

Hope the calpol helps ds2 (it's amazing a bit of rest can help older kids though- I know even an afternoon at home can transform dd).

Evening all, still very sleep deprived here (2am wakening, MASSIVE hour long tantrum - I pity my neighbours, couldn't get back to sleep blah blah) so finding it difficult to take in more than the last couple of posts. Poor DH has a terrible headache (combination of work pressure and lack of sleep) and is on the sleeper to London tonight. Tonight has been same old same old Gig - he's just about quietened down just now. I'm actually starting to think we might have to go to see HV or GP. We've always joked that he's always been a bit OCD (apologies to anyone who has OCD ) about things having to be just so and there are all sorts of particular routines he wants us to go through at bedtime - who knows, maybe it's all connected. I think I might start to keep a lack of sleep diary for a week or two and if no improvement make an appointment.

LaG - hope littlest one ok tonight. I can imagine you're very excited about the new house. Have you got a move date yet? I'm sure you've said already, sorry. That's good that you have a family connection to your solicitor - he'll be more inclined to look out for you I'm sure.

I've discovered that mudwiggle is on pinterest so I think we've lost her to that. You can lose hours browsing on there.

I am slightly cheered this week about impending release of iPhone 4s. Simple pleasures...

Ooh, good point re:bad credit and former occupiers. You can sort it though but worth checking exactly how. I'm sure you can get in touch with credit ref agencies and confirm people have left the property and stuff but like Gig I'm not sure how it works.

Really quick post as have lots of statements to write and CV to sort and birthday presents to wrap .

Deb, so sorry to hear about the sudden death of your uncle - it's incredible how cancer can take some people so quickly. A friend of mine lost a teaching colleague to cancer years ago and it was four days from diagnosis to death . A very sad time for your family x

Leo, I think you should definitely speak to someone - you can't go on like this and as LG said it's better to deal with it sooner rather than later. Big hugs x

Hi to everyone else, must go!

Thanks everyone

Leo, def get an appointment, re the sleep issues, it can't carry on, it's going to wear you all down.

yes another vote for getting help as you and dh have done all you can. The gp/hv option might be a start as if they can't help maybe try a specialist.

Any weekend plans ?

Thanks everyone. I had a good chat with DS's key worker at nursery today and she said the same. She said the HV or GP would get us to do a sleep diary so I'm going to do that for a couple of weeks.

Mind you, typically he's not made a peep since being left upstairs about half an hour ago! Fingers crossed for a good night.

Deb, how are your family doing?

Nothing much happening here this weekend apart from revising

oh leo - hope you can sneak a wine/choc break in front of x factor in...

Judging by tonight , if this weekend isn't spent with dh doing things with apple products to update them , I've missed my guess. Aside from that out for dinner tomorrow, swimming with e on saturday and then down to see mil on sunday. her tv/sky is broken which has produced more calls in a week than at any other point that I've known her (including various health crisis, etc etc). Not sure quite what she thinks dh/I will do when she rings at work...

Ah yes, if I can get my hands on a new iPhone tomorrow there'll be some apple updating tasks over the weekend and yes to wine + x factor. No revision Sat/Sun nights. It's the law!

Family are all doing fine, Mum is home now and funeral is a week on Monday so I plan to go alone on the train, spend the night then Mum and stepDad will drive back here with me to see the boys for a night which will be nice.Mum and Aunty have sat by both grandparents and now my uncle's bedsides, nurses in hospital were commenting on their vigil and in their(mum and aunty) sleep deprived state they suggested they could hire themselves out as...wait for it....vigil...aunties!!!

at Vigil-aunties Deb!

Not much to report here - off to buy DS a bedroom lamp this morning to see if that helps (he puts the light on at night which is far too bright to encourage sleep) and I'll order one of those gro sleep clocks. I'm going to start the sleep diary today too (this week has been a bit out of sorts because DH travelling and getting home late a lot).

I managed to lose an entire evening to my shiny new iPhone yesterday.

Apart from that, study and xfactor.

Stitching, happy birthday to DS2!

Thank you Leo . Felt strangely emotional at DS2 turning 2 - the baby days are now over . I feel wistful that I will never do all the baby thing again but so immensely grateful that I ever had the chance to do it in the first place, especially that we had the chance to do it twice. I still look at DS2 with wonder that he is even here .

Deb, I at Vigil aunties! Hope you and yours are ok x

Hi to everyone else. Must go and write statements!

Oh and good luck with the clocks Leo - we have an IKEA moon in the boys' bedroom and the gro clock. The latter was a godsend in keeping the boys in bed in the morning - although DS2 is still in a cot and I do wonder what will happen when we eventually release him!

What did you get ds2 for birthday in end? And happy birthday to him..

Leo how is new phone? Is it all working ok ?

Nothing much to report here - quiet weekend except had nice meal out on friday . And watching the rubbish that is x factor

Delights of visit to mother in law today

It's lovely Gig! It's all working ok - I had a slight hiccup when setting up my iCloud because I have two apple id's (one for my macbook and my iTunes account). I set my new phone up to my usual apple id which then changed the iTunes on my phone which buggered up syncing new apps with my macbook but I got it sorted quite quickly. .

Bought DS a lamp last night - it made no odds. He took his pi's off and threw them down the stairs so we found him sleeping naked in his bed later on. I've started a sleep diary. All of his games are being taken away today as a result of last night's monster tantrums and the jigsaws are gonna get it tomorrow...

Stitching - I think the feelings about the baby years are quite common aren't they? Lots of cool years to come I'm sure though before they turn into stroppy teens [hwink]

Gig - hope the MIL visit is ok today. Did you come to a decision about Christmas?

LaG - anything more on your dodgy vendors? Have your weekends of cleaning for viewings been replaced by weekends of packing.

Mudwiggle - where are you? Are you lost on pinterest?

Deb, have you and the boys/DH been up to much this weekend?

We got DS2 a Bob the Builder toolkit - this one which he likes (as does DS1!), but the big hit has been this. Our first imaginext purchase and we are very impressed! MIL had originally ordered the Fireman Sam one but having seen it we realised what a load of tat it was and replaced it with this one. Incredibly good quality. One of DS1's friends has loads of imaginext stuff and it's all very durable and well-played with, so recommended for your Christmas list!

Leo, sorry to hear about the ongoing sleep battles - have you made a GP appt yet?

Right off for a girls' night in . NCT curry night round a friend's house - one of the girls is bf with very small baby so thought it would be easier than going out. Looking forward to a good catch up.

They look like great presents Stitching. I really swithered between the imaginext and duplo fire station at birthday time. Def worth keeping in mind though. On the Christmas present from I see that bigjigs now do wooden road stuff to link in with wooden rail sets. DS is getting a wooden garage for Christmas so might get a wee set of the road to go with it. I'm envisaging giant road/rail/garage layouts taking over the living room floor over the Christmas hols.

No appt yet Stitching - DS's key worker at nursery said they'd probably ask me to go away and keep a sleep diary for a couple of weeks so I'm going to do that first. I started it yesterday. Hope you have a good night in tonight!

Gig - how was today? Are you watching xfactor?

hi everyone, we've been staying at friends this weekend which made a nice change. Friends live in on the edge of a massive housing estate,I went walking this morning with the boys before 2 big ones killed each other in friends small garden. In the field just behind the houses we saw 2 deer, they stopped to look at us then ran off, no need for 5.30am forest walks with Mum!!! also been shopping today for something for funeral, got a v nice dress and long knitted cardi/coat. Nothing else to report here.

Hope sleep goes OK tonight Leo

Stitching, know what you mean about baby days being over.And teenage ones are here already.

I must be mad, I've just booked to take DS to the cbeebies live show next Easter. DS will love it, maybe me a bit less so... Bloody expensive mind - I managed to get in quick enough to get seats near the front but no child seat discounts at the front!

You are mad but you arent the fool going to Disney on ice this weekend.

Thought x factor was entertaining but both of the lowest acts should have gone. Let's face it I may watch but wouldn't buy their music.

Stitching - that is good tip for Xmas (although think we have sufficient tat to keep dd happy).

Deb when is the funeral ? I did like the idea of vigil aunties too.

Lag- boys all better now?

Mil wasnt too bad (we only got to 1 on list of 5 of her gripes but she seems to be apparently rediscovering her faith that she always had. The look of disbelief when she came out with this on my bil face was magic ). sky box also fixed - crisis may not be unrelated to fact batteries in remote were in the wrong way .

The Xmas topic wasnt mentioned but I don't see it being feasible

Spoke to soon - mil on phone again re tv. Dh is normally a very patient man but I fear this may break him

I did look into the Disney shows a while ago but thankfully nothing on near us. Actually, saw some pics when a friend took her DD last year and it looked great. DS would love it I think.

Right, a revision session for me - wish me luck.

DH is off doing the nightly battle with DS - we gave him a cup of cool camomile tea tonight, we'll try anything once now!

Bloody DH. Grrrr. He's just spent an hour upstairs with DS (completely unnecessary as there's no bath - so must be giving in to requests for more stories etc). Also, DS wanted the main light on and not his lamp so DH said that was fine. Gah. No wonder we have a nightmare. Tried to speak to DH about it and he gets all huffy and puts on that face that he probably put on when his mother told him off when he was younger Here am I doing research, trying to come up with a consistent calming bedtime routine. I give up. I really do. Every fecking time. Gah.

Oh no - hope today better Leo are you keeping the diary?

Waves to everyone else- need to shift my backside off bed to get food but cant be bothered