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'...

LVB hope things improve soon. We must be near the end of the winter bugs now surely .

Oh I agree - not for us in high season either Lottie! We went in May one year. Weather was fab & it was more than busy enough for us! Tis pricey though I managed to get a couple of uses out of my ticket since they're valid for a year, so not so bad (then work paid...). How crap about the nursery Lottie - settling in days are when they should be trying to impress you, no?

Sorry there's so much ickyness still hanging around, but can I be the first to say we've had a fabby, fantastic, icky-free weekend and are now hankering after a move back to the NE. Completely manic but we got around to see all the rellies we needed to & it was great. Went out on Sun evening to a Brewers Fayre place & were a bit that it looked like various people weren't going to bother but at the 11th hour everyone decided to come & it was lovely. Boys were so, so good. 2 1/2 hours at table, charmed everyone, ate like horses & had enough energy to go mad in the soft play area after. Am looking forward to my own bed tonight though! Oh... and the car limped us home this morning & is in the garage again.

Back to unpacking while dd is having a mad 5mins in the jumperoo.

Lavita you poor love x

Sorry to hear that your girls are still poorly LVB - poor them, and poor you :( At least they can play out in the garden, if they feel up to it, without passing bug onto anyone else. Really hope you all manage to get rid of it soon. If you get the D&V, be careful to stay hydrated as there is a nasty bug around here causing such bad dehydrated that people have had to go to hospital - dioralyte is selling out quick!

Lottie Back to one of your previous posts about having to 'look good with twins' - I totally get that, and am exactly the same with the triplets. I'd hate for anyone to think that I can't cope or that I find it really hard - even out in public, if one starts to have a strop then I think that everyone must look and think 'God, it must be so hard with triplets - poor woman, bet she cant cope'. And I would never say to anyone, other than friends, if the triplets had been naughty or going through a bad stage or whatever - even when babies - because it was like I wanted everyone to think that I was doing absolutely fine with DTri's - which I was, but I wanted everyone to know that I could cope with triplets. Weird the feelings we get! So different from having my older 2!

Can't believe the nursery was closed! What a nightmare! Bet you had got yourself all prepared for every eventuality, and been a bit nervous/scared excited - and then for it to be closed!?!

ALL Ahh bet you were really proud of the boys! Is so nice to be able to take them out to a restaurant and know that they will sit and eat nicely - DD's all love a sunday roast, so sometimes we'll all go out on sunday and they absolutely love it!

Hope the LVB household is doing better today.

Kate - our KiddiKutter knives arrived yesterday, all the way from Oz, and they are a big hit so thanks for the tip. :) Also have built and started using the Funpods - have had to rearrange furniture in the kitchen to make room to store them but they are great and the girls are endlessly fascinated by being at the same height and able to help Mummy. Really having to make sure everything's safe up on the worktop though which is a new thing to think about!

Right, off to nursery today - and we're all wearing SANDALS. Whatever next!!

Also sending get well soon vibes to LVB, V and F. Hope you are all emerging out the other side and that all these bugs will soon be a distant memory (for us all).

Glad you hear you sounding more chipper too Lottie and that the holiday ended better than it began. How are the girls taking to nursery so far - any anxiety when you leave the room? I was thinking a bit about your food dramas and wondering whether options like a stir fry, pad thai or fajitas might work for you - some meat, some veg, avoidable carbs for those who don't like them? And the girls can help with prepping the veg now they have their knives! In the long run I don't think you will thank yourself for cooking separate meals for everyone even though I know it must be hard to see either of them go without, so I would tough it out a bit and just serve up one thing (eg stir fry) and clear it away without comment if they reject it. Not having got to this stage with mine yet, feel free to reject this as fantasy talk.

Glad you had such a fab weekend ALL. Sounds like amazingly good behaviour from the boys, did you bribe them with something? Can C really be old enough to be in a jumperoo now?! Where did that time go?

How are you feeling about Emme's condition now Kate? Have you got to grips with it a bit or still struggling? Remember we have a comfy couch here.

Very much agree re: keeping up a good appearance of twin parenting. I really don't like the odd occasions when I have given away being a bit harassed and generally much prefer to breeze in and out of places looking totally under control. I always imagine people are clicking their tongues and saying that I make it look like hard work.

If they saw me at bedtime at the moment they might be justified in saying that. S is having what I can only describe as tantrums at the moment (13 months old!) From being such a placid, easy little boy he's suddenly become one who arches his back and flings himself around raving and throwing things away from him in anger. Apparently he is fine all day at nursery, so it's just with us that he does this! I started with the theory that perhaps it was sort of separation anxiety - only triggered once we were back together again after a day apart. But he's seemed a bit constipated recently so I took him to the doc's again today to see if he was 'backed up' - verdict was not really, so we are back to a behavioural issue. I actually dread bathtimes again now because there is so much screaming and he flails around in the water quite alarmingly. Does this seem early to you for tantrums to start? I should be grateful I suppose that R is going through a brilliant phase - normally quite a feisty girl and quick to upset, but she's being a delight.

Thanks whoever asked how nursery was going now - settling down a bit in terms of absence. I managed a straight week at work last week though R needed an early pick up again on Monday with a temperature. Somehow it seems much better doing that after I have at least shown my face a bit - the way it started was so bad that I felt I hadn't built up the credits to be allowed to leave early. Stupid me putting pressure on myself again. Is that a recurring theme with twin mums? Do they only give multiples to women who set ridiculous standards for themselves?

haha, boys have gone to nursery with suncream, sunhats..... and wellies. Going to have to take them shoe shopping to see if I can find something summery worthy of obsession. Did you find nursery open today then Lottie?

I meant to come back to your meal traumas too - sounds like a nightmare, and that's without the added complication of dh's needs! Our two have very different tastes but not so much that I can't just give them different proportions of whatever I cook. I'd def be lost without having pasta/rice/potato as options. I find lunch difficult for ds2 as he just won't eat bread & is now refusing hot cross buns / potato cakes / pittas too. He does make up for it at dinner though so not really too bad. Just worry that he's hungry in the afternoon.

On a lighter cooking note I thought having children would be a great excuse for lots of baking. I've made fairy cakes so often they're totally bored but they've refused swiss roll, lemon drizzle cake & Victoria sponge in the last week. I'm gonna be the size of a house having to deal with all this cake!

I think we were all happy to be in our own beds last night. Boys slept 7-7 - a first here!!

Hope things are better today Lavita?

Yes, all open today thanks - went okay but I am a bit worried about it. It's a lovely place, brilliant outdoor space etc etc and the staff seem really nice. But every now and then I see a child wandering around crying and freak out internally that the girls will be doing that at some point and there'll be nobody immediately rushing to their aid. The staff are good with the kids, and watching them like a hawk as I did today they did approach and try and comfort those children. But there were times when the child couldn't be comforted (they were quite new and not 'settled' yet according to one person I spoke to) and I freeze inside to think I might do that to the girls. They had lunch there while I sat outside (gloriously enjoying a few minutes to read Chris Hitchen's autobiog - woo I think I can actually feel my brain reforming!) - until one of the key workers brought J sobbing through to see me. She was doing that thing where they're crying so much they can't speak without a sharp intake of breath (). I know I need to do the settling thing, but in a way I think it's worse when they know you're there somewhere but can't find you. Tomorrow we're going in for more of a full day and I'm going to leave them for an hour or so while I nip off to look at a Montessori place that has spaces for September. I do think that once the girls get settled here it's going to be perfect, and in an embarrassingly MC admission I am kind of pleased that it's a 'normal' environment with people of mixed backgrounds rather than somewhere a bit more uniform. I reserve the right to change my mind on a whim...

One thing I do like about it there is that they seem to provide all those things like sun hats, sun cream, waterproofs, wellies, lunch - the things that used to drive me mad about the previous place as I turned up armed with giant bags containing provisions for every weather eventuality. And it's open almost all year round...

Cerub - glad your ability to get to the office has improved. Re. the tantrums, not sure what to suggest other than to reassure you that often you get periods where they're like this and sooner or later you 'get' what was going on and it does pass. Does it come on specifically at bath time? Could he be getting more tired than his sister (maybe a growth spurt causing him to use up more energy or similar)? I do love the way that one often seems to compensate for the other and behave well when necessary... :) If he's suffering from constipation I wonder whether the bath makes him feel like he needs to 'go' or something.

Speaking of which, I am in the process now of making an appointment with a specialist to deal with E's constipation. It is getting worse and worse and I can't stand to see her go through it any more.

Re. the food, just had a classic one I witnessed at the nursery. They'd made roast lamb with gravy, roast veg, mash, and cabbage/carrots. Eve ate nothing other than about 14 slices of roast lamb. Juliet nibbled at the cabbage and wouldn't eat anything else because it had been touched by Evil Gravy....

I meant to say the other day, in response to tarti's car seat escapees - we originally bought these Kiddy car seats which last until age 11/12. They don't have a traditional harness and are highly rated by Which. So we used them for a few months, went through a weird phase where the girls got very upset being in them (later realised it was because we were meant to remove a certain cushion when they got to a certain size and actually they were uncomfortable in them). On a whim, having been back to the UK and having had rental seats which had harnesses, we wasted loads of cash buying two traditional harness ones. WELL - fast forward a few months and lo and behold we had two girls who could extricate themselves from the straps within moments of being strapped in. We decided at the last minute before our drive back to the UK in January to revert back to the Kiddy ones and now they are an absolute dream. Easy to put the girls in, and they can't ever get out. Instead of a harness there's what the girls call their 'table' which sits across the front of them. We're very pleased we gave them another go (although do now have two Britax/Romer seats gathering dust!). Anyway if anyone's at that point of needing to change up to the next size seat (Cerub?) it's worth considering them....

(I do realise that is a very tedious post!)

Ahh how weird lottie - we have the same carseats for the DTri's! Although ours are GuardianFix - don't know if thats any different to the GuardianPro's - but they look identical.
We were RF with the triplets in a Group1 carseat, but because they are pretty small, the straps were just ridiculously too big, but obviously a baby seat was too small. It took us ages to find a solution, but the kiddy carseat was perfect - we love them :) FWIW, did you ever look at the cybex ones? We really toyed between those and the kiddy ones. Have you got the kiddy aqua draw thing too? Is bloody brilliant for long car journeys!

What's RF Kate? Yes, love the seats - although really did think we'd been sold a pup when the girls went through this phase of hating them. They would wriggle so much during the journey that they'd manage to almost be in the footwell of the car - so frightening. Until we realised that we should have taken the mini cushion out and all would have been fine

Nursery settling in day went better today - I left them from 10-11.30 and then sat in the foyer from 11.30-12.30. Did spot J having a mini meltdown when they asked them to go through for lunch, but saw that the people working there soon sorted her out, albeit with a dummy, but still. Early days. They seemed to enjoy it there and were beaming when they saw me. Tomorrow we're going for a full day - but they expect me to sit in the foyer all day! FAT CHANCE IN THIS SUNSHINE

ALL - meant to say - congrats on the 7-7 sleep... :) Well done on all that baking, I just couldn't do it as I'm too much of a compulsive eater and can't be trusted. We made choc banana muffins yesterday and so far the score is Girls: 2 - Mum: 4

Wow, Lottie, our nursery can't get the parents out of the door quickly enough! I've been having a wobble nursery recently but think it's mainly just me / boys not doing long days any more. Our place provides lunch - very glad I don't need to think about that & sometimes wish they did am rather than pm & they'd still get fed there at the moment.

Not sure I can be trusted on the baking either. Luckily we took stuff up home to share with the family at the weekend. & dp is keen to help, despite being less than enthusiastic about the prospect of Swiss roll. & of course I can pretend I'm immune to weight gain at the moment since I'm bf. Once I've found a few different things they'll eat I can lay off the experimenting .

Cerubina I'd say they go through phases with tantrums too. Ours have, esp ds1 and it does seem to correlate with when they need to try out new understanding etc. I think I expected a definite start to `terrible 2s' and then a prolonged period til it was all OK again but so far we've had periods of difficult behaviour, probably from a year or so (?), interspersed with loveliness. We're in lovliness at the moment & I thought that was over forever the other weekend when things were v tough.

Dd & jumperoo - I know, it's flying over (she rolled back to front for 1st time last night too!!)! Though boys are enjoying rediscovering jumperoo too. They can both climb in & are happy to spend ages in it. Going to have to dismantle one of the legs when dd isn't in otherwise they're going to break it. They can't get out at the mo tho so it's proving useful is keeping them contained for a few minutes!

Sorry Lottie Rear-facing - after the baby seats, we wanted them to be rear-facing as its so much safer, but they were just too small for the bigger carseats.
Mine love not being strapped in - although think it will cause a bit of a fight when they have to use it as a highback booster with a proper seatbelt!
Glad nursery went a bit better - I've always found that my DD's are soo soo different at nursery - quiet ones are the loudest at nursery, and DD2 who has the answer 'No' or 'Never' to everything I ask, is apparently the most wonderful child who always does as shes told and never answers back.

ALL My diet has gone completely out the window and I've gone the other day! We made muffins today, but only eaten 1 so far as been busy.
Ahhh, I miss those jumperoo days! When DTri's were around that age and wanted to be entertained all the time, we had 3 'stations' and every 15 minutes or so (when they got bored!) I would swap them all round to a different station! We had ridiculous amounts of 'equipment' - could easily have made a nursery!

Today was the first day of zero vomiting , still some very unpleasant smelly nappies though!

Will try and post something nice and positive tomorrow...

Glad to hear that you are hopefully emerging from d+v LVB

Kate how is E, and you?

No chat here about car seats, the boys don't really fiddle with the straps/catches. However D does a great plank when you try to get him in

Diet wise I am actually doing ok. I have lost 1 stone since last sept. Glacially slow, but at least there is a stone less of me. 1 stone to go until an acceptable weight, 2 stone until ideal weight. It's all a bit on hold at the moment as I can't loose any more otherwise the strapless bridesmaid dress will fall down. It's already a bit loose - always glamourous when you spend the day hoiking up the front of your dress . A week on Saturday until the wedding.

Yay for the 'no vomming day' LVB !!!
Not so good for the nasty nappies still, but stay positive and I'm sure you will have a 'no nasty nappy' day soon!

Phew LVB - hope today is even better. I feel like I've done 10 rounds with Tyson when we get to the end of a phase of illness, just so draining and demoralising. Hope you can nip off for a bit of a pampering haircut or manicure or just a small BREAK this weekend, whatever makes you feel a bit more human.

So nursery wanted me to sit in the corridor for SEVEN HOURS today - fat chance - nipped off after 20 minutes for coffee nearby and am just about to pop back. Girls are going to have a sleep there today so fingers crossed that all works. In other news my DB had a son yesterday (well, his g/f did), so I now have a NEPHEW :)

That's madness Lottie!?! Haven't they heard of mobile phones if they need to contact you? Our nursery takes the view that all most children settle eventually and do it better with a quick goodbye & then be left to it. I felt they prob thought I was being ott requesting settling in sessions at all & then all we got was a 1 hour followed by a morning session & then straight into their 3 full days per week.

Glad to hear things sound much better Lavita - long may it last!

Well done on losing weight Chesti! Slow is a good way of doing it though. Sounds like you might have to let go a bit to make sure you fit your dress

Thought we'd made the star biscuits inedible by having a icing/sprinkles session this am. At lunchtime ds2 took some convincing that they weren't just a work of art though Ds1 looked v proud when he remembered!

It is madness. It's also completely arbitrary because some of the staff members have looked at me as if to say 'what are you DOING here?', whilst others looked aghast when I mentioned popping off to enjoy myself to leave them to it.

I left anyway. Have already been to a local curtain maker to discuss curtains for the girls' room. Anyone else having issues getting their kids to sleep since the clocks went back?? This week has been dreadful for us, although last night they finally dropped off at about 9, having spent an hour chatting away in their room. Always makes me laugh that even when it's dark they want to sit there reading a book in the cot... :) I also hear them saying 'quick! Mummy's coming!' as they hear me walking up the stairs to their room. It's as if they don't want to be caught doing something naughty when they're just sat in their cots having a chat Anyway I've got to get a better curtain/blind solution going in their room soon because it is so light in there and I want them to go to sleep earlier (7.30/8). They're not waking up till 8.30 at the moment which sounds great (it is...) but not very good for getting us to nursery for 9am.

Anyway ramble ramble ramble. Hoping to get a babysitter tonight so we can go out for dinner. DH so so stressed at work, and of course bringing it home with him which never makes for an easy atmosphere.

Meant clocks going forward, obvs.

We've got a blackout blind in the boys' room (& have in fact just bought one for dd's room this morning) so we're always in twilight. I have been thinking curtains today though. Got material to make for both rooms last summer but not got around to it yet so just ordered some headers tape today too. And some nets voiles for other rooms. One day we will have a home rather than just a roof over our head.

Have fun at dinner too. We're going to have to make an effort to interact me thinks....

Yes we are going through a not so great patch at the moment too - DH and I that is, not the girls who are full of it as always.

Lavita great news that your girls are on the mend. Bagsie yourself a free morning this weekend if at all possible, you must need it!

Well I'm embarrassed to admit I shed a tear at teatime as my lovingly prepared tea was rejected without being tasted and hurled across the table. Although to be fair it was a spicy root veg and lentil casserole so one has to wonder what I was thinking. Hm anyway, no prizes for guessing what DH and I are will be having for dinner tonight.... R is getting worse though and just takes one look at things and pronounces NO and then starts whinging and trying to get down from her chair which I find odd as I've never tried to force her to eat anything. (Well, I supposed I have ahem 'encouraged' her to try stuff - should I really stop even doing that??)

Think my wobble at teatime was also due to feeling bit down about DH and I not getting on so well and also feeling overwhelmed by toys and mess at the moment. This is my ocd-lite kicking in, as objectively I can see that the house is clean and not that messy, although we do have a toy storage issue. But I want it to look like a magazine and also am EFFING SICK of picking up plastic farm animals/dirty cutlery/odd socks/bits of fake fruit ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY. I could be very breezy and positive if only I had someone to do that for me.

Aaaand breathe. Sorry everyone

Tarti / &

Oh Tarti I can sympathise . It's really wearing and soul destroying with a constantly messy house. I dream of having a cleaner. It would be bliss.