LG, your poor dad 
and mum . Could you arrange for them to have a a gardener for a while at least to keep on top of the garden while your dad's out of action? My parents now have a gardener as dad just isn't fit enough to do the big jobs anymore - he potters, and prunes and weeds but doesn't do anything major. It might just help your mum feel less stressed if things aren't getting on top of her.
Deb, thank you so much for the FB pics - they were lovely 
. I have made a new friend through my appeal on FB for someone to make me a schultute (sp?) - I belong to a group called W'ham Gossip Girls (crap name but a great group) and I posted about it on there and the woman who offered to make me one has a DD starting at DS1's school in September!
SP, have just ordered the Edinburgh Fringe programme as I didn't find looking at it on line very easy and it was annoying me 
! I definitely want to go and see Marcus Brigstocke (just finished reading The God Collar which was bloody brilliant) but other than that we're not sure! Do you have any recommendations?
Gig, PMSL at your human cockroach of an MIL ! Can't believe DD2 is already 5 months 
! Glad the weaning is going well - we had the feeding situation the other way around, we couldn't believe what a nightmare weaning was with DS2 when we were super smug BLWers with DS1 .
Why don't you save starting the weaning thread until you're bored in hospital next week? 
I'm not surprised you're apprehensive about the chemo - hope it goes as well as can be expected and we can reschedule our meet up x
at my MIL being the gift who keeps on giving! It's hard to describe what an utter PITA she is - a lot of it this w/e was because I was tired and I just found her very presence exceptionally irritating. Specific things included her incredulity that I had managed to spend two days cycling in Germany ("How did you manage? That's a lot of exercise for you" = "How did a fat heifer like you manage to even get on a bike let alone ride it for miles" 
). Then there was the hour of talking about public sector pensions and basically being told that public sector workers are overpaid with over-funded pensions, etc. Now many people think this but is it really appropriate to bang on about it to your public sector employed DIL? Told her if everyone thought it was such a cushy number why was I the only one of my friends who worked in the public sector and how, on a salary of £16k p.a. was I going to get one of these gilt edged pensions?! That shut the old bint up .
Then she started to bang on about how young FIL's brother and his wife were when they became GPs. Dh's cousin is an old slapper who got knocked up by the local drug dealer when she was 18 - what a shame dh didn't do the same thing, eh? Instead he stupidly fell in love with a barren old cow who deliberately deprived her of the joy of GC for five years while she had fun at the fertility clinic . What a selfish bitch I am eh?
Oh and then she gave DS1 his birthday present and wanted a photo taken with both boys with their matching helicopters - I was taking a photo alongside FIL but the boys were being completely uncooperative and so I gave up. MIL then got them to pose again 5 mins later and they both did lovely smiles and got a nice pic. Great. MIL then looked at the pic on the camera and said to DS1 "why don't you go and show mummy this lovely pic (I was sitting at the table in the lounge and she was on the sofa), mummy will be so jealous, it takes her ages to get you two to smile for her but you smile straightaway for me".
WTAF!!!! Stupid bitch! I was . I know it sounds like nothing, it's the constant small crap that adds up to a steaming pile of shit with her .
Anyway, long rant. Off to get ready - girls' night out before our last NCT baby turns up next week .
Thanks for listening .