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'...

Oh but Lavita - you can get them from AlexandAlexa.com with free delivery!! Sorry!

Link? I can't find them

Not until jubilee week Lavita. I've been to Harrogate many times, it is delightful. Have tea at Betty's and go to the spa in the baths if you have chance, it's really old fashioned and lovely. Are you staying at the Hotel du Vin by any chance?
I'm not a fan of crocs on grown ups but think cute on kiddies.

Chesti how are things? Any sign of spreadage or are the boys holding out?

Here are the white ones - they also sell Bensimons for £24. Btw Smallable had some gorgeous colours which were exclusive to them but they're all sold out grrrr...

You'd love these LVB - just bought a few bits from Smallable including these dresses which I thought were great value and now they've arrived they are VERY pretty. I got yellow and grey ones, will do for some occasion not yet in the diary this summer.

Tarti we are staying here - I won a 2 night break

LL love those dresses, I really like this one & also the one with pineapples on both sold out in small sizes, might fit your older girls though Kate

ALL Happy birthday to the boys, hope you are having a fab day

LVB WOW! That hotel is amazing, so jealous!

Love those dresses - bird one is my favourite! How do you ladies find these amazing websites?! When DD's need something, my limited website ideas stretch to Next/Boden/H&M/etc..!! Decided that every time one of you links to an unusual website, I'm going to make a list of them!

Back to shoe issue - now its gone freezing, crocs are useless and I have had to force DD's to wear winter boots - so no desperate need for the pumps anymore really!

Are you sure you want to get me started on cars LVB ??... I can honestly say that trying to find a car to newborn triplets, a 2YO, 3YO and huge triple (occasionally quad) buggy in the boot, brought me to tears many many times. DD1 and 2 were still in group1 carseats, and for the triplets we decided that it was pretty much a necessity to have the isofix bases so that we could just clip them in and go.
It wasn't too hard to find a car that would seat us all - we worked out how to make it work.. but in every single one there was absolutely no boot space - not even for an umbrella fold buggy... let alone our titanic.
To cut extremely long and boring story short, we've imported 2 american cars in the past 2 years.
We went all out on a lovely 2011 honda odyssey (SP?) minivan. It was the best of the minivans, and was perfect with huge boot and loads of room - we could move the seats around and have a bloody picnic in the back!
But after 18months of driving a minivan I was totally sick with it and we started to look for more ideas. This was when the DTri's were going to be coming out of infant car seats, and we were planning to buy an ABC buggy - which folds up a lot smaller so we wouldnt need as much boot room. I do love big bad american 'SUVs' and fell in love with the brand new Ford Expedition (extended of course!) - which is what I drive now and bloody love.
We still have the honda for if we go away on holiday, or are carrying lots of baggage - because it has so much more room than the ford.
Having the ABC, and the girls in bigger (but smaller!) carseats, makes things so much easier!

Sorry its so long LVB :( Im actually quite a freak - I really love cars! Only the ones I like, but I could talk for hours about ours!

God am feeling bad now about the car. DH wanted an A4, I told him it was too long and I was the one who drove it most of the week so pipe down . Sounds like even that wouldn't have been big by all your standards. So tomorrow we will be picking up our tiny focus. GOD KNOWS how we will manage driving to France in the summer. Roof rack I suppose, maybe will sedate DH and just fold him into passenger seat so no moaning.

Lavita hotel looks gorge. Aren't you always winning things? Love those smallable dresses, want the bird one for me.....

Tarti Hope I don't make you feel worse by saying this - but an A4 is like driving a SmartCar in our 'big multiples cars' ...

Think you will want an A6 at least - an A4 has an averagey sized boot really. You need to think about room for buggy and shopping ;)

Oh shit, sorry Tarti - just re-read your post and realized you'd bought a Focus..

You might love it of course, but if not - theres always time to swap before your France trip. Just blame it on us and tell DH that we've said you need a bigger car..

...or fold dh into roofbox & put buggy in passenger seat Tarti

Wow, that hotel does look fab Lavita! Keep meaning to visit Harrogate but not made it yet. Looks lovely.

With you on not liking Crocs on adults but they're comfy & convenient. Remember seeing them when my trendy friend got some when they first became trandy & wondering how a grown-up could be seen dead in them. Then somehow got sucked in. I do try not to go anywhere too public in them though don't always care. Mine are (of course) red so not exactly inconspicuous.Had a look at girls shoes in Next - how exciting are they?! What a fab selection. Then I made the mistake of looking at boys' stuff.

Thanks for the good wishes on boys' birthday. We've had a lovely day, if not quite as planned. Dp booked the day off work & we planned to go see the dinosaur exhibition in Chester zoo because they loved the previous one. But then dp had a job interview this morning. & then a stone chip (growing to 8inches long by last night!) in the car windscreen yesterday am. Since the car is non-standard, no new windscreens in stock so had to order it to be fitted... today. No prob, dp would go to work & I'd go on Safari (tho banned from the baboon enclosure on account of expensive car month) when done. Then today garage said couldn't fit the windscreen cos of the wind / rain (understandable) so we've been stuck indoors. Boys had new toys to play with / DVDs to watch though so we have had a lovely day &weather was too rubbish anyway. & we took them out for a birthday curry tonight & that was lovely too. Cake was a disaster too. Since they've not liked any of my cakes so far I did a last minute packet chocolate cake. Was fine but.... think we had another ratty visitor last night as the cake tins were on the floor (though choc cake was fine) & last of star biscuits gone. May just have fallen then the dog ate biscuits but we can't risk it .

I'm still here, but between chicken poxy H (boys are fine), work being crazily busy, getting sorted for wedding this weekend and the campervan completely bombing its MOT, I'm not left with much mumsnetting time.

ALL Happy birthday to the boys. Sound like you had a lovely day regardless of the messed up plans. Cerubina belated happy birthday to your twins too. Tarti your girls must be next. If I remember they are about a week older than my boys? They are getting a set of football goals for their birthday. Not very exciting in my opinion but they will love them. They are ball obsessed. I try not to be gender stereotypical but am finding boys a complete different ball game pun-intended to girls.

Chesti - sorry to hear you're still chicken poxy (or at the tail end of it). Someone mentioned a chicken pox vaccine to me the other day, has anyone considered it? I dread the day they get The Pox.

LVB - have a fab weekend away; hotel looks gorge. Love those Mini Rodini dresses, although I also bought a couple of the MR plain dresses in navy and pink and so far they haven't washed well My mother is very sniffy about the way I dress the girls and thinks I try to make them look too grown up. But then that's because they're not dressed head to toe in themed Peppa outfits.

Right, off to bed. Had a friend round for dinner and embarrassingly had forgotten, so treated him to a shared ready meal. Oh the giddy heights of sophistication...

I will love the new focus as we already have one which I love. But DH is right, it's too small for all of us plus luggage. It's just that when we only have one car I resent having one that I find too big to drive for most of the year just for the sake of a 2 week holiday! Plus we won't be needing the buggy for more than another 12 months

Nightmare ALL - rats, windscreen etc. I was chuckling the other week about yours not liking cakes and you trying to get one of them to eat a biscuit with the icing on. My fat bastards won't eat anything but. Must be genetic...

Chesti good idea about the footie goals. I'm tossing up between baby dolls with pram etc (they're obsessed with the ones at nursery) or my original idea of a dressing up box with some gear in it (a friend has already made them a peter pan and a captain hook outfit - they're amazing!!). Yes think mine are week before you - 17th of May here.

Lol at your mother Lottie. Someone commented to me that my two looked 'victorian' the other day... I think she was intending to be complimentary

You will love it tarti... BUT for next time, I think I could see you in an A4. They're not that big, really...

Girls in nursery. Time to stop thumb-twiddling. Off to the curtain shop.

Thank you for the birthday wishes for the twins, however they are 13 months old! If my post on FB prompted them, it was marking a year since they came home (5 weeks in hospital, you see)...

Audi have obviously done quite well out of multiples as we have an A6 too. It's lovely to drive, even speaking as a complete jessie with regards to parking and tight manoeuvres. Will be interesting to see if it feels much bigger for trips away now that sterilising and a billion bottles a day are a thing of the past, so should theoretically need less stuff, but even though yours are that bit older tarti I still marvel that you can get what you need in a Focus.

Right, fish and chips beckon.

Hi Cerub :)

I do remember though that at our Tamba ante-natal session, ALL the other twin parents-to-be had Ford Focuses, we felt like the odd ones out (at the time we had an old banger Saab convertible which obviously had to go!).

I like to think of it as bijou

The Focus must have been our lucky charm then - we bought it the week we did the boys' ivf cycle not believing we'd end up with a viable pg, let alone twins.

Maybe the sweet tooth is a girly thing Tarti? Maybe Dd will indulge in a little cake eating. Othwerwise I may have to befriend the rats....

I keep tying myself in knots on gender-based toys Chesti! Was determined they could have what they wanted but I just feel like I'm trying too hard to pee off mil if I consider `girl' toys for boys. Should have seen the reaction when I put dd in a blue cardigan. & mil's horror that someone she knows has allowed ds to have a pink room. He will end up gay. Apparently. Not that there's anything wrong with that.... obviously.... but sometimes you just have to say no and not Take Things Too Far .

We got the boys Ikea (yup, theme continues...) wooden train set & crane & they love them. Their fav pressie has been a plastic dishwasher with opening door / pingy/swooshy noises. Except we don't have a dishwasher so they have no concept of that. Instead it's a tea (ds1) / coffee (ds2) maker come microwave . Cup o tea Mummy? Milk? Kind? Was all coffeed out last night!

Off to Wales for the long weekend. We can't keep dd a secret from nosey neighbour this time surely? It's become a sad little challenge we've set ourselves in the face of her all-knowing nature.

ALL at your trying to buck the gender stereotyping. I am obsessed with it but then got VERY upset at the playground when E knocked her head that the idiot woman who was there at the time said "he's okay, he just knocked his head on the bar". Even in the midst of my panic at her silently mouthing a scream and rolling around on the floor in pieces (I worry when they do something like that but can't even articulate a sound, they're so freaked out) I managed to wibble out "he's a SHE actually!"

The girls' fave toy at Christmas was a £5 wooden toaster which pinged up and down (and up, and down, and up, etc.) Sometimes you just can't predict what they're going to go crazy over...

Very, very quiet here

I've been busy ebaying, it's quite addictive, I've sold some roof tiles that have been in my garden for the last 3 years since our loft conversion, and have lots of random stuff selling his week. All part of my New Year's resolution to declutter and generally be tidier and more organised!

Other news is that we've paid deposits for the girls to start nursery next Jan, only starting with 2 mornings a week but building up. It's a lovely private school and they as long as we can afford it will stay there until they are 7! I just couldn't face church every week

Off for the weekend to Harrogate so will catch up soon

Was just coming on to say how quiet it is!

Have a lovely weekend Lavita - well jel of that delicious looking hotel.
Good stuff about nursery, I love that you've sacked off church I can't face it either, am pinning hopes on double lines on the lottery so we can move somewhere with suitably smug middle class state schools

Was fuming at nursery this morning as they hadn't added the girls to the register despite me agreeing today as an extra day (one off) ages ago. Fortunately they sorted it and the poor nursery girls were mortified but am really annoyed at the manager, we've had a few admin blips with them recently and it is very annoying not to be able to rely on them 100%. Makes me especially cross as the nursery workers are superb and care for the girls so beautifully - just let down by management.

I am off to my second wedding of the week tomorrow. Was brother in law's on Tuesday (I won't comment here as too public )

I thought Lottie had killed the thread!

Hope everyone had a great Easter. We had MIL and my parents to stay, all good though my Mum has it firmly in her head that every time she sees the twins she catches a cold that turns into a chest infection, and very nearly didn't come at all on the off-chance that she'd catch something, FFS. If we worked on that basis, she wouldn't see them again until they are 18.

Have a fab time in Harrogate LVB. We went there about 8 years ago for a long weekend (stayed in Hotel du Vin - gorgeous) and thought it was lovely. Lots of interesting places around to visit and yes definitely visit the tea rooms.

I could do with ebaying some stuff too, we've got all kinds of junk lying around and big things like swings that the twins have got too big for. We just managed to get rid of a dishwasher that has been sitting in our garden for about 2 years and had become a big bogeyman in my head, worrying how we would ever get rid of it. Marvellous German engineering though as according to the recipients it apparently still works fine after a couple of cold winters!

Enjoy the wedding today tarti. Somewhat intrigued about Tuesday's experience... Going back a few posts I would second the idea of getting your girls a dressing up box for their birthday, fab idea. I would have loved one when little, and they'll have such fun being able to do it together.

Bit late to the party, but crocs... I always assumed they were terrible for children's feet because surely they have to really grip with their toes to keep them on? Or are they actually OK? It's funny how you turn into your mum eventually because I completely plan to keep mine in Clarks until they are about 15. As a tween I found my shoes so awful and humiliating to wear, and yet I am going to inflict them on my children! I can kid myself that these days Clarks is a lot trendier a brand than it used to be, right?

Chesti have you come out the other side of the pox now?

It has been quiet on here. In my case that is because life has been hectic. Wedding last weekend was great. Everything went without a hitch. Until afterwards when on sunday morning I woke up with a-hangover a allergic reaction to the make up. (stupid grease paint like makeup that the makeup artist used) My face was swollen and peeling and everything. Very attractive. It's taken most of the week to calm down.

H was pretty much over chicken pox by last weekend, though the spot/scabs are still falling off. However just yesterday D developed spots. Just in time for DH to disappear off for a stag weekend in Brighton. Am not in the mood to look after 3 kids on my own especially if 1 has pox. So am sloping off to my parents for the weekend.

Have also been ebaying lately, but have just had a bad experience of someone complaining that the tops I sold were disgusting and stained. Felt ridiculously hurt by the allegation. I thought they were fine. Asked her to send photos of the stains whch she dis but I still couldn't see thm! It was my word against hers, so I just refunded her to avoid neg feedback. Has put me off though so I think I will just save the stuff for a NCT nearly new sale.

Reading this post back its pretty moany and I have the gall to complain about H being a moany sod. Begining to realise she might get it from me! Will try to be more positive. Hope everyone has nice weekends at weddings/holidays etc.

Only just came on here to check up - hasn't been in my 'I'm on' for ages!

Hope everyone's had a nice Easter - we are definitely chocolated out! DD's now think its normal to have a bit of chocolate most nights for pudding!

Will catch up later tonight, but on the topic of Clarks Cerubina - I've always followed my mothers footsteps and agree that they do do some lovely shoes. Our school run is quite a walk, so I like to know that the girls have properly fitted shoes. My feet a weird - most shoes kill my feet, so I want them to be comfortable. After the whole 'canvas shoe' palava, I decided to just get the DTri's some Doodles (I just wanted something different!) - went well and they all got fitted and chose some cute ones. Wore them around for a few days and were fine; then decided to do the nursery run (is opposite way to school run so we always drive) and is quite a bit further than school run, but not on busy roads. Let them walk and they've been getting really good lately so didn't take the buggy. Alexa is the laziest when it comes to walking and is always whinging that her legs hurt. Well, she started 2 minutes after we left nursery for the walk home. We got the usual 'my legs hurtin' every 2 seconds, and after 10 minutes walking I got a bit cross and told her that I'd had enough of her whinging, and that I just wanted her to walk nicely like the others - she sulked the rest of the way home. We got in and everyone took shoes off etc, but Alexa just suddenly burst out crying and was sobbing her little heart out - she wouldn't tell me what was wrong, she'd said something was hurting, so I went through the process of saying each body part and whether it hurt. It was her feet. She finally let me take her socks off, and the poor little thing - basically, her whole left foot was one huge blister, and was actually bleeding. I've never seen her so upset; and I've certainly never ever seen a blister like it - her whole heel was covered in one big blister which went all the way round to the ankle bone; then she had 2 long ones going along the sides of her feet, and then 3 toes were blistered. I felt awful I actually cried
I had an hour or so the next day by myself (nursery/playdates etc) so I marched DD into big local Clarks and waved her bloodied, blistered foot around. I made it pretty obvious how disgusted I was. The staff there were all 'its nothing to do with us' type thing. Manager came out and agreed that it was quite bad and offered to replace the shoes - replace them?! Poor DD was terrified and refused to put her foot back in them! Then manager said she should be re-measured - used the handheld one, shoved her foot to the back which was obviously ridiculously painful for DD and she started screaming - manager had made her foot start bleeding again.
Normally I can always keep my cool, but we were both so stressed out that I just had to walk off. I rang main Clarks customer service who were just brilliant - apologised profusely and agreed that it was awful. She said that DD could pick any pair of shoes in the shop (although understood if DD didn't want to just yet) and would send a £40 voucher. Customer services lady was lovely :)

Sorry that story was so long - I'm still a Clarks follower, but I'm just very weary now of the fitter. Customer services think that DD hasn't been fitted properly - but she'll be re-fitted once her feet have recovered, and if so then they will be taking the case further with the fitter. I can't fault their Customer services; but even the staff instore just seem to hate their job, and even going to get the shoes from out the back is too much effort.

Thank god we did get the Crocs - A has had to go barefoot for a few days, but back in Crocs now :)

So much of so little consequence to say

Crocs - sure they're not the best for little feet Cerubina. My defence: must be better than trenchfoot-by-welly, feet are at least given lots of room & I don't feel I actively need to hold mine on with toes so I'll risk them. Boys are footwear-free at home anyway. I thought I'd be a `Clarks til teen' Mum but enough of a job to keep any clothing etc on so def picking my battles now. (As aside, Costco had genuine kiddy Crocs today for £12.99, tho not huge colour range and ladies for £16.99 but NO red!!).

& Kate, seems so inadequate but poor you all!!! I would have cried too. That sounds horrendous. & as for remeasuring when poor thing still had such sore feet . I hope she's a bit better now?

Hope Harrogate is going well Lavita! Another who should be ebaying & interested that you did tiles. We have a load of quarry tiles we dug out of the garden yrs ago. No use for them but know they have great salvage value so reluctant to chuck - didn't occur to me to ebay! I'm a seller-virgin tho & a bit scared! Also have lots of office furniture I keep meaning to get started with on no-insertion fee weekends but I'm a wuss!

Sounds like something our nursery wouls do Tarti . How does it work with everyone else in moving up rooms/ contact with keyworker? I've not seen they boys' keyworker for erm... months? Not sure I've actually spoken to her since dd arrived. I drop the boys with whoever answers the door at nursery & dp picks them up from whoever gets them from their room. I asked a few weeks ago about moving to 2-3yr room thinking it might have happened & they've not told me. Turns out they won't be going til the new academic yr in Sept when they free places in the top age room with kids going to school. I don't know how I feel about that. Immediate reaction is that it's not acceptable for my then almost 2 1/2 yrs to be in baby room. Not just for them, but for babies. But then they're only doing 3 x 1/2 days so maybe it doesn't matter? I'd come to terms with that approach but then talking to friends this week, they think it's really bad. But if there's no room....

Not much exciting stuff here. I was inspired by the progress we made on prettying up our Wales house last weekend & have decided we're definitely sprucing up here. When we have a spare moment of course. Need to finish dd's bedroom first so have spent this afternoon finishing wallpapering her room & looking for a cot. She isn't going to fit the Moses basket much longer not that she does now really.