TTT.....

[AtLongLast]

OTT / self-indulgent I know, but Toddler Twin Tantrums..... aaargh! Just as well they're so cute too. Ds2 was v funny today wiggling his bum singing uh, uh Bobby' in response to me dancing round the kitchen to Bobby's girl'...

Sorry ALL - your boys are hilarious! They are nappy avoiders of the highest order! You deserve them to be VERY easy when you potty train them. Isn't it funny how quirky kids can be? :) E getting very upset about her sore nose, bless her. She's taken to wailing "I done a bogey" in the same manner as when she's done a wee or a poo, obviously assuming the same grammar applies

wish there was a like button for these posts!
am not here really, you didn't see me, am supposed to be writing reports

Lottie So pleased you got the fun pods! You will absolutely love them once they arrive! What colour did you get?
The knives are brilliant too - they do cut properly, but not sharp at all.

ALL We love IKEA too - could go there and spend £££'s every time! They definitely think of everything - don't think I've even seen extendable beds before. We'll definitely get them for the DTr's as will mean that they have more room rather than going from 3 cots to 3 single beds! They're nice and low too so don't need to worry about falling out.
Your boys are very funny ALL! Bet it wasn't so funny when you found him thouugh . When DD2 was potty training (but not dry at night) she used to go to bed happily with pull ups on, and then take them off once I'd gone downstairs. Would be so hard wrestling a floppy toddler back into pullups!

I got the Buttermilk ones Kate. Can't wait to get them set up although it'll have to wait until we get back now. They arrived today; excellent service from Kiddicare - very impressed as they emailed me last night to tell me that the parcel would arrive between 1247 and 1347 today. Which it did.

Another very difficult day here, mostly because I am feeling so unbelievably stressed and run down (along with hormonal, day one of period - didn't help). Non-stop whining all day from two tired, coughing, and very bored toddlers was not a good recipe for success. Now running around trying to pack for everybody so we can leave first thing.

I hope things pick up once you're on your way Lottie. I'm sure they will. Packing is the pits, hope you're all done by now.

ALL I pm'd you back earlier but wasn't concentrating as had DH on at me in one ear - obviously we could come somewhere near where you're staying if that's easier/you can think of anywhere

Haha, I did laugh at discovering ds1's nappyless state, but in an incredulous non-believing we'd not had an accident sort of way. I guess that success would count as potty-trained in some circles though .

Tough couple of days here. The whingyness we've experienced lately was indeed the precursor to illness. They went to a creche for a couple of hours yesterday & ds2 crumpled as soon as he saw me & had a temperature. Decided to go for a quick lap of the safari park in the hope they'd sleep and ds1 threw up just after we got in. Poor thing, not a lot you can do when you're stuck in a car surrounded by wild animals. Lap was a whole lot quicker than anticipated though and he was happy to have an excuse to shower when we got in strange child. Today we've had a relay of crying & meltdowns & it has been hard work, not helped that I don't feel great, & dd is unsettled tonight. Tomorrow can only be better . We decided not to go away this weekend after all, but dp will need to go down to Wales on his own tomorrow. Joy. He decided we'd do mother's day today. Got as far as a local farm but it was v busy so we had a car picnic, then it rained so we came home to more crying. Apparently I didn't seem well enough to go grocery shopping so dp helpfully went to do it. Leaving me with 3 whingy kids. I know which is the easiest, esp as I would have taken dd with me .

Thinking of you off on your jollies Lottie - have fun . Kiddicare's delivery is excellent! I do get a bit annoyed by their `fab offers' though.

pming you Tarti.

Have messaged you back ALL with different options cos am staying over Sat night now, sorry
Your last couple of days sound hellish, hope you managed today with all 3 while DP buggeredoff went down to Wales

Update from Lavita post hol please!

ZZZ zzzzz Zzzzz

We're on holiday! Loving it so far, this place isn't entirely what I'd choose if I was sans les kids but... with them it's not half bad. Childcare = good enough to drop them immediately for 2 hours. Pool = very child-friendly and warm. Spa treatments = very welcomed. Food good, staff nice and helpful, etc etc.

E still a bit grumpy/ill, which I'm hoping will pass soon because my patience is running thin a bit on that front. I was rather hoping to dine out on the 'aren't my twins cute' card but so far the cute factor has been rather lacking with a toddler who just runs around wailing 'me done a bogey, me done A BOGEY' over and over and over and over again.

tarti am 3/4 through the French kids book. Have so many thoughts on it, and this hotel is ripe for reflection. One family came down to the only 'non-kids' restaurant at dinner with.... their 2.4 year old, in her pyjamas and in the buggy. They obviously couldn't leave her in the room, or couldn't get her to sleep on her own, so insisted on bringing her down with them to dinner so they could wheel her buggy up and down while they tried to eat. Ridiculous. BUT I'm getting to the point in the book (you may have reached this point too) where you just want ANSWERS and tips, and it just seems to get more and more about point-scoring about how brilliant the French are at it all (let's gloss over the sexism of the M/F roles and how the women are just supposed to uncomplainingly be brilliant at everything) and how rubbish we all are.

I had been thinking, before reading this book, that I wondered what the generation of children we're all bringing up are going to be like. Most of my friends felt under-loved by their parents, and had parents who didn't express their feelings towards them. By contrast, most of my friends pride themselves on how vociferous they are with their feelings towards their children ("I tell her I love her twenty times a day!") - what will our children be like as a result? And discuss

Hi everyone!

Centreparcs was fantastic, we did go to Longleat our apartment hadn't been cleaned that well and we had a broken kettle, but guest services quickly rectified and gave us £40 of restaurant vouchers. All good, the girls loved the pool and the ducks and squirrels , took MIL with us so had a bit of child free time, and enjoyed the spa!

Still plagued by teething/illness, DP says it can't be normal for children to be ill so often, we're just so bored of them whinging.

Shall I read this French kids book then? DP won't like it, his aunt is French and they have fought for years, she is always right and so is he the Italian version would be called "let's spoil our children and create monsters" we are not of the same cloth when it comes to parenting

Interesting point LL about this generation, I had a pretty good childhood, not much money but an abundance of love (although my parents are divorced now)
Not sure if there is any relation to this but I'm a very confident person, always been very sure of myself. Not sure if my waffling makes much sense, will think further and post later

Bugger. T'internet ate my post when mn went offline pfft!

So: Lavita - glad you had a lovely time. Had to smile at us when I found myself pushing boys in buggy uphill while carrying dd in sling on last day, despite us being 6 adults and 3 kids. Mostly cos things went pear-shaped when we discovered our car wouldn't start but was not amused.

Sorry as I am everyone else is having illness, v glad we're not alone! Ds2 threw up twice today though otherwise seems OK between bouts of whingyness. He's also discovering excatly how to wind up ds1 so we've had lots of falling out. Still, nothing like Saturday - that was the closest I've come to losing it!

Mum def thinks we're going to have a generation of delinquents Lottie. My sister is having problems with her 18yr old ds and Mum is vocal about where they have gone wrong. We weren't well off but only recently realised how stressful that was for Mum. She is a big believer in smacking but we also knew we were loved, even if it was never actually said. I'm always snogging ours & telling them I love them but dreading the time she attempts discipline with ours! Hopefully distance will mean it's not an issue. I hope that showing respect to children will be reciprocated naive parent of toddler.

Hmm I do sometimes have thoughts about how our children's generation will grow up to be. Not so much the telling them we love them all the time - I remember that my mum did this, but we were also disciplined properly, by which I suppose I mean we knew where the boundaries were and were pretty terrified of a (rare) bollocking, whilst still maintaining normal amounts of cheekiness etc. If I could recreate the job my parents made of parenting I would be happy with that. But I sometimes come home from a parents' evening thinking that the majority now treat their teenagers as friends; there seems to be much less of a 'line' (of respect or whatever - can't quite put my finger on it) between adults and children - definitely see this in the classroom too and I don't just mean in terms of bad behaviour - even the nice kids are very ... familiar. Not that I necessarily want them to be any different, it's just VERY different to they atmosphere I remember from school and my relationships with teachers. Guess that's just my personal experience though. Someone else in a different school might well think otherwise.

I know what you mean Lottie about the sexist m/f roles business, however I am v susceptible to this for some reason and can't help but absorb it on some level and come away thinking I should be draped across the bed, lightly perfumed, in ruinously expensive lingerie when DH comes home, having killed it in the boardroom all day then come home and knocked up some intricate patisserie for everyone's gouter ... haaaa.
I talked to my French friend about the book (she hasn't read it) and she pronounced the gender roles stuff to be bullshit but said the subtle difference in attitude re. making them wait is definitely a feature - she is always saying it to her toddler. I think she is also more matter of fact about what she expects of him (in terms of sleep, table manners) than some other people I know with toddlers, who are either less consistent or less bothered. But that's hardly a big sample to generalise from!
The thing is, all the stuff about cadre - ie a prevailing culture whereby parents/adults are to be listened to/obeyed - well that can't be recreated if you're living in an Anglo/American culture. And I came away from the book thinking that cadre that she talks about is probably the single biggest factor. So it kind of means most of the rest of it is redundant information for British parents (albeit interesting to francophiles/parenting obsessives like my good self ).

Ugh, sorry to hear about the illnesses one and all. Some sort of hideous lurgey appears to be crossing the country.

LVB - glad to hear you had a good time at CP - good result how they responded to the bad clean etc. Re. the French book, I do think it's interesting, it's just all very anecdotal. We have had a Very Bad Day today with the girls, they are just not themselves (I bloody hope) and I'm finding every mealtime a complete ordeal. They wake up grizzling and go to bed grizzling and there's not much in between other than grizzling at the moment. Such hard work. And having just read that book is making me even more depressed about it, as though we're doing a bad job and this holiday is just highlighting it. Anyway I must stop whingeing and do whatever it takes to use this opportunity to relax.

ALL - yes, I'm sure my mother thinks similarly. We were smacked as children - although not that much. My main bone of contention was that things never felt FAIR in our house, and my parents were very good at that kind of 'just do it because I say so' approach, which never really washed with me and left me convinced (as a highly annoying child/teenager) that they were incapable of telling me the real reasons why we had to do things because the real reasons were stupid and unfair. (Crikey, this has obviously left a scar! ). So my/our main 'thing' is that I want things to feel fair to my girls, and I always want to explain things to them so that they make sense. We don't do naughty step/similar yet, and I really don't want to have to start. But I can see how much there is ahead and if today is anything to go by I'm going to be a wreck by the time they're three

Think having multiples probably increases that intense awareness of being fair too, Lottie. Sorry you've had a shit day. Pressure always increases when you're away (I find) cos you feel you SHOULD BE ENJOYING YOURSELVES. Plus the public eating is stressful (with two ferals, in my case).

Healthy vibes to all, let's have a vomit-free week!

Lavita what did you have at the spa? Did you book in advance?

Haha, fail already on that one Tarti!

Agree re pressure to enjoy on hols & thought we'd fall foul of that one. Not easy when the girls aren't themselves though. In the depths of despair over the last few days I've wondered if it's me too, but then see flashes of our `normal' & feel better. The boys have definitely upped the anti in testing boundaries though. I put ds2 out of the kitchen at dinner tonight cos he was only interested in throwing food/cutlery. He was much better when I brought him back in.

Sounds v similar to us Lottie. I probably wasn't smacked loads as we got older but we knew it was a possibility as it was freely dished out when younger. We had the `cos I said so' logic too & I hope I don't fall into that. Fairness rarely came into it & I hated knowing I was right about something but it not being acknowledged. I was the easy child & soo compliant & regret that now. As a teen Mum just wouldn't speak to me for days instead & it caused an awful atmosphere in the family & was prob worse than being smacked! I'm worse than useless at arguments / being confident of my opinion & I think some of it is because we weren't allowed an opinion. Mum is so proud that she could take us anywhere & know we'd behave &, admirable though that may be, I'd rather my children didn't fear me the way we did my Mum.

Our crappy car has broken down again today so dp had to be towed home from work & I had to do a dash to nursery to pick up ds1 & do all the dinner/bath/bed stuff. Hope it is fixed in time for trip up home though I'm rapidly losing faith with it.

tarti - sorry, x-posted earlier. Just reading what you've written - am too tired to construct intelligible reply now but will tomorrow - lots of food for thought. V interesting to read your verdict, given your added classroom experience; tis very valid.

I'm back in the land of mumsnet. I can't believe the hen night took up so much of my time. All over now, and friend really enjoyed herself so all worth it.

No other news apart from the kids have all spent a lot of last week playing with some friends who I have just found out have now got chicken pox so awaiting the spots appearing on our 3. Though H has been exposed several times before and not gone down with it. Don't actually mind if they get it, gets it out of the way.

Off to catch up on all the posts.....

Welcome back Chesti - glad it went well. Are you the worse for wear or were you well behaved?

Mine have twice in the last month been at close quarters with the pox but nothing has materialised I had been quite looking forward to five days off work

I am supposed to be perusing wedding lists: we have three to go to within the next month, all DH's friends/family and another three before the year's out. All but one involve a stag/hen do, present, outfits and one or more nights in a hotel. £££££!!!!!

Swimwear for nearly/just turned two year olds. Went shopping with mum yesterday and she bought them swimming costumes from JL - all very nice but have got them home and there is no integrated nappy, plus the material is the kind of thin stuff you'd make a (cheap) adult's cossie out of, so a garish swim nappy is going to show through. What's the normal thing to put them in (I've no idea as never taken them swimming). Jojo have thicker looking costumes with nappy, we had the knicker versions last year and they were nice... am also thinking ahead to pool and sea in the summer - would they want little wetsuits for that?

Lottie

I bought a Jojo Swimsuit for CP, love them!

The meadow colour, also wanted a ditzy or poppy one but I bought in store and they didn't have the other ones.

Right you've convinced me Lavita, ditsy and meadow I think

Really ought to do some work

We had the JJMB ones last year but I found they washed badly, with the colour running out and making them look v faded really quickly. Also I didn't really trust them without a swim nappy and didn't fancy clearing up a costume in case of an accident. Of which there were a couple last year. So I now buy them normal cossies (like these ones here - just looked at those prices though and I got them much cheaper than that in a sale - wouldn't pay £25 for a cossie for them! Having said that tarti - I have at least two cossies which are in excellent nick and are size 18m - 24m, or maybe just age 2y, which I don't mind posting on to you if you fancy them. They are Mitty James ones you can see in that link - one navy/white stripe with red trim, and one Sky Daisy. Or if you don't want them, anyone else??!

Tarti I booked an afternoon spa session, 3hrs with my girlfriends (2other families came, and my friends sister also came for the last 2 days) then DP and I had the dual mud treatment which was on special offer. My skin felt great after but next I'd book a massage.

Chesti What did you do for your hen do?, I am currently jointly organising a trashy one for my best friend, theme is Big Fat Gypsy Wedding! We are doing it's a Knockout in the day, should be fun, anything for a night away!

I was smacked too on occasion, also my mum was very firm with boundaries, if she said no, we wouldn't ask again because no always meant no my dad less so, but he's a whole other story...