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'...

PS: on the name front, Kate - my DN is called Isla too - my sis-in-law is Scottish. I slightly regret using the name Eve because it's just EVERYWHERE (in the form of Evie more, but hey ho...) but at the time I was insistent that that wouldn't sway me because for as long as I could remember I'd wanted to use that name for a child of mine.

Thanks Mucky no more puking thankfully but they are both full of cold and very miserable with it. Noses are streaming and they are like limpets clinging to me. So difficult to get anything done . I'll probably be up until midnight packing. Our routine is that I lay everything for the girls and myself on the bed and DP organises his stuff and packs the bags, and loads the car. My packing skills leave a lot to be desired apparently

Lovely news from Nursery too Mucky I am so excited about my 2 mornings a week off from January

Kate I love all your girls names.

ALL what are your boys names?

Well I love Alexa and don't know any Eves if that provides any reassurance! Different parts of the country I guess. I know a lot of children with Rose as middle name and a fair few Rosies but I don't regret using it as I've always loved it. I do slightly regret putting Margaret on Maggie's birth cert... I wanted to give her the option of using any of its lovely diminutives (Peggy, meg, greta) but I do get some raised eyebrows about Margaret...

Oh Lavita what a pain. I'm sure the vomiting will just have been phlegm related but not ideal for getting you in holiday mode. Maybe it will mean they sleep all the way down (hopeful face)

Meant to say I don't know any Islas either. A good friend wanted to use it but her surname is Murray so it sounded too much like an imaginary Scottish island!

I like Alexa too :) And don't know any other Islas.

tarti - I know what you mean re. Margaret, although I think it's a classic name. Juliet's middle name is Joan and although I have a knee-jerk feeling that it's too much of an 'old woman' name (it was DH's grandmother), I also think - like Margaret - that it's a very strong, classic name. Margaret has so many lovely diminutives and IMO it's always better to make the 'official' name a proper name.

Do any of you ever venture onto the baby name threads? They are vicious! It's so so personal and I never really know why people want to canvas the opinion of random strangers online - it would only take two or three people in a row to dismiss a name I liked and I'd start to panic!

Oh yes... another with problem bare walls here. We have the boys' nursery photos waiting to go on the walls. Framed & been on the desk in the lounge since November. Looks more like a shrine... We I have grand plans for deep clean this weekend so hopefully lots of stuff like that will be sorted yeah, right.

Names - who would believe it could be such a difficult subject pre-children! Used to browse the name forum & agree it can be vicious.

In my defence, our 3 are all named after Grandparents. Ds1 is Jack. Love the name, love the link to dp's adored paternal grandad who died 18 or so yrs ago. We decided on it back in the day when we started ttcing.... way before it got v popular. Don't like that it's so popular though I only know a couple of others. I'd ruled it out as a (now not close) friend has a ds of same name. Ds2 is Will (William on bc) after my mum's dad etc tho they all used Willy (!) / Bill/y. Totally love his name but again not its popularity. Dd is Cora after my mum's mum. Love that it's uncommon & the link to her but still not convinced about the name itself. She was nearly a Libby (Elizabeth on bc).

Funny about Isla' - lots around here! There were 5 in the under-1 gp I took the boys to (and another 2 who had it as a middle name). My friend's dd is one of those (& I'm convinced I often call dd Isla' when we spend time with them due to both having 2 syllables / ending in `a'). Mum of one of the others was most put-out cos she thought she'd chosen an uncommon name. She's quizzed my friend a few times about which school her dd will go to. I find it amusing after hearing her loudly berate people who choose popular names as they clearly have put no thought/imagination into choosing names. Riiiight....

Isla very popular here too (though I am in Scotland). I barely know a boy here without a very Scottish name (as mine have too). We are awash with Callums and Fergus's and Camerons. I am beginning to consider sending the boys to the soon to open Gaelic school. Not for any reasons of strong national feeling, in fact with my family going back for generations as lowlanders it feels a bit silly, but just for the opportunity to be bi-lingual. My MIL (in essex) will definitely see it as a sign of my crazy Scottishness, however. I think she views my vegetarianism as a symptom of my crazy Scottishness .

I also have worries about popularity for my boys. Though perhaps a little different. Magnus is very outgoing, Alasdair is not. I don't worry about Alasdair as he is happy in his little world of wheels and lego aeroplanes, Magnus I can see being devastated by friendships going awry.

And finally, some links to beautiful shoes for boys I have bought. I am considering. Love these, DH would faint

Thanks ladies - there are a few Isla's around here, but they are all under the age of 2/3, so there aren't any in DD's class, let alone the whole school as it is very unusual here for a girl over the age of about 4.

Funnily enough mucky I don't think of Evie and Eve being that similar, and much much prefer Eve :)

I know what you mean about the name threads, there was a whole thread the other day basically slagging off the name Emme/Emmie and saying that it wasn't a real name etc. I quite proudly went and said that one of mine was an Emme and that people never pronounce it wrong (as they tried to say!). Our Emme totally suits her name and I absolutely adore it.

Tarti So are your DT's Maggie and Rose - so, so gorgeous! One of Jasmine's middle names is Margaret after my GP - definitely agree that it is a strong, classic name!

ALL Jack is a bit more popular but I think Jack and Will is really lovely - I normally like a little bit more unusual names than the usual Tom/Ben etc, but Jack and Will would definitely be on my future boys list!
And Cora is beautiful - never really heard it before and I love it.

Honestly, we had such a nightmare with naming our girls - after they were born they were Jasmine, Sienna and Fern; Sienna then to Amaya, and then concluded with Jasmine, Emme and Alexa.
Before born, favourites were also Maya and Azaria.

Then came the nightmare of middle names too - god that was a stressful time!

You must have been swimming in names Kate! We had a nightmare in hospital in Switzerland as you have to come up with the official names 72 hours after they are born. We hadn't sorted our middle names at all and a nurse came around badgering me for our decisions - eventually she gave me ONE HOUR to finalise them! I try not to think about them too much - we went for two names each in the end due to my panic - Eve is E Alice Clemency and J is J Joan Beatrice. My mother was horrified at our ponciness!

waves at rattling :)

I must go to bed, must must must.

Ohh they aren't poncy; again, they are classic and strong names - very beautiful!
I think we went a bit mental after naming DTrips - we just picked a middle name and then stuck a member of the family on the end!
Jasmine Ruby Margaret
Emme Sahara Helen
Alexa Kitty Sarah.

We put much more effort into DD1 and DD2's!!
They are
Isla Arianna Grace, and Indie Seraphina

I must go to bed too - I had to have a nap today

72 hours LadyM?? I think dp would have taken that long for 1st thoughts given half a chance!

Thanks Kate. We were supposed to be trying ds names for a while before making a decision but just as I realised dp had started telling everyone we were using the names, Jack & Jill' rhyme dawned on me & I suddenly hated it. Also, because I'd ruled out using Jack (and dp refused to engage in name discussions pre-birth) I had named ds1 Will in my head. Was v confused! Love the combo now though. Was difficult enough getting first names with dp... he doesn't believe ' in middle names. I really wanted dd to have Nana's name so she is Cora Elizabeth. Feel a bit sorry for poor plain J though - common name with no derivatives or middle name. A friend did ask if we'd gone to a lot of effort to make sure we all have 4 letter names - how twee is that

Though I obv don't know Emme, she def suits her name from here . I can't imagine your littly being a Siena or Amaya. How odd is that!

Hi rattling! Some of those shoes are available in red too

Should go to bed here too - been at work today & I'm done for!

Hope LVB has a lovely holiday and that the snot has abated. Also hope E's puke was indeed just a full tummy Kate and no further incidents since then.

Very much enjoying reading all the names and thoughts that went into them. I think they're all lovely and we have all been very tasteful . When S&R were in special care, there were twins in there with the delightful names of Baileiy and Ryleiy (I kid you not, that was how they were spelled). I don't even know what gender those are supposed to indicate , and those poor children are going to be attempting to spell them for people their whole lives!

For the record, ours are Sebastian Henry Reginald and Rosamund Madeleine Mary. We decided on them about 15 hours after they were born, as they'd come so early - there was definitely some superstition about getting too carried away with planning in case something went wrong. I had been compiling a spreadsheet with all the names I liked from the baby book and there were about 20-25 for each, some not suitable for first names but possible middle names. DH contributed a few (some of which really surprised me - Tallulah for example. Sounds so showbiz!) I had private favourites of Tabitha, Genevieve and Gabriel but in the end we agreed on Sebastian and Rosamund and then tried different middle names until we got a combo we both liked. We're such accountants we even did a scoring system and tried to work out the averages! The extra middle names are after DH's grandparents - thought it was nice to honour them but this way they don't have to use them unless they want to, given they're quite old fashioned names. They are such a Seb and Rosie, it's impossible now to see them as anything else.

Love those shoes rattling. They are hugely cute. S really loves his shoes at the moment and looks so pleased with himself when I put them on him, so it is tempting to splurge on some smart new ones.

I have a ridiculous cashflow problem this month - I have £20 of my own funds to last me to payday. It's just been such an expensive few weeks with the holiday and various big items to pay for like dozens of photo frames , I have been left absolutely cleaned out. Am loath to use the credit card as well as that just stores up problems so will definitely be v v careful for the next few weeks, dammit.

I agree, we on this thread are the best at name choosing, and that's that

ALL - loving your comments about DP not believing in middle names!!!

Kate - when I said ours were 'poncy' I meant the fact that we'd given them two, not the names themselves - this is according to my mother, whose nose visibly wrinkled when she found out - as though that kind of thing wasn't for the likes of us )

Can I engage the services of the MN jury for a second? I keep having involuntary fits at something that happens chez moi and DH is insisting I'm being unreasonable. I rarely go out during the week (or ever, in fact) but every single time I say to DH that I have been asked to do X on a certain night, he replies by saying 'great, let's get a babysitter and then I can go out too'. Last Friday when I went to the opera he went to see a film. He keeps saying 'what's the problem, let's just get a babysitter as much as we need to' but I think the issue for me is that deep down I don't really like using a babysitter too much. I also think it should be possible for me to have evenings off occasionally and for the girls OTHER PARENT to just be here to look after them as a matter of course. His other argument is that I have two days 'off' per week and he doesn't have any. He has a good point there although during my 6 hours off twice a week I do tend to whizz around getting all those jobs done which are hard to do with kids, do admin at home, occasionally meet a friend for lunch unencumbered with children, spend miniscule amounts of time on MN, etc etc. I mean, I'm hardly spending 6 hours larging it up in town or out socialising. Oh I don't know, maybe I am BU.

Continuing the name chat, we also have grandmothers - one of each of ours, in both cases very special to us - in the girls names (Eve Alice and Juliet Joan) and I'm glad we did. Also Cerub still shocked and amused at those names in hospital!!! I mean, what were they not thinking??!! And - Tabitha was on our v v short list and I still love it :)

No, with you there LadyM, especially if it is just really a case of sitting in while the girls are sleeping. Unless he feels too guilty / unfair to leave you to do evening shift after doing the day so thinks it's the only way he can justify going out on his own... but doesn't really sound that way?

Dp had all our 3 for first time yesterday while I did a day in work. Think he was really looking forward to it but a bit scared since he's not had dd on his own & he had to feed her. First time she's had a bottle tho it was a struggle. He took them to playgroup & then to Tesco and bathed in the glory of being SuperDad.

I gave dp the baby name book after dd was born. He came up with Matilda (friend named her dd that 2 wks earlier, unbeknown to dp) or....... Freda ?!?! Dunno, dd has an `old lady' name but.....?

ALL Thats so funny about your DH not 'believing' in middle names - so does (or doesnt!) my DH!!!! He doesn't have one himself, and says that he hasn't missed out on anything and tried so hard to persuade me not to give them middle names!
Will be back on later to catch up - esp Re: babysitting. We find it quite hard to get a babysitter because I'm a bit wary as to who to leave them with. I prefer to leave them with my 'mum friends' as they know my DD's best; but if we are going out with all mum friends, then I just feel guilty leaving them with people who aren't that comfortable doing so. My DD's aren't naughty, but there are times when, out of the blue, all 5 will appear downstairs - and that is not something I'd want a babysitter to have to deal with!

I'll say it in case no-one at home has: Poor You! How are you feeling, over the worst of it yet? Hateful being ill, hope you've got some decent help with the girls over the weekend.

We braved a day without a lunchtime nap yesterday and it was surprisingly successful. Juliet fell asleep on the sofa for 1/2 an hour at about 4 but still went down easily that night; Eve was on sparkling form and didn't appear at all tired - until bedtime when she went down straight away. Think naps are going to be a thing of the past soon... and in a weird way am looking forward to it. I still think we'll have a 'quiet time' during the day when they can watch TV or something so I still get to be selfish get on with stuff, but I think it'll feel quite liberating in some ways. Also congratulating ourselves on having gone for a family swim and lunch out this morning with NO ARGUMENTS in the changing rooms afterwards.

Also went to the Montessori nursery open day yesterday and still in two minds about what to do with the girls. Why is this not easy??! It seems crazy to move them and I think we'll probably stick with where they are already, I guess I'm just worried that if we want to 'feed' into certain schools we might need to move them into a more appropriate nursery/pre-school now.

Poor you Tarti - hope you're feeling a lot better now. Did the tonsilitis take a firm hold?

Haha to the unbelievers! Neither of us have middle names either Kate (though my brothers do) & though I've never missed it, I like them. You did well to get so many passed your dh!

Well done on the lack & nap LadyM! I've done it on nursery days otherwise it can be manic fitting everything in before having to drop them off. But I do it knowing nursery will have them all afternoon and if they get v tired they will have a sleep there.

Have to go rescue dp. He's trying to work & has paperwork on the floor. Dd has found speed & has been terrorising him for a while... Worked out that the paper he's given her is Not Important so nt worthy of her attention. I think she's in the manic `discovering phase' & is permanently in meerkat mode.

Today we have posted all of Juliet's 'num nums' in an envelope to my Goddaughter at her suggestion. She has mentioned it about 5 times in the past week, that she'd like to give Baby M her num nums because she doesn't need them any more. So we did it, together. It is now 8.47 and she is nowhere near asleep and has been whimpering for them since I put her down at 7.45. Sigh... hope we make it - I know there's no point going back although I did of course keep one back just in case...

Good luck - stay strong! I wonder if she'll be expecting your Goddaughter to be using them next time she sees her?

Dd (finally) took a bottle of expressed milk the other day when dp had them all. There was a little left when I got in & the boys were really interested very eeew/odd for them to be supping bm. They don't seem to have any memory of bottles, which surprised me.

Mucky That is such a big step! Massive welldone to Juliet! Would send lots of as a Congratulations, but I think that would be a bit unsuitable (although would help her sleep!) so sending 's instead! On a serious note, really hope she's asleep - first night is the worst, but keep reminding her of the lovely gift that she is giving to Baby M! So, so sweet!

I know I keep going on about it, but by the end of this week, my trio will be the proud owners of 3 small beds! Not chosen or ordered yet (not found 'the ones') but I am determined. Plus, once they are in beds then the dodie/nummy fairy will be coming for them too!

ALL So glad your littley had her first bottle :) Are you pleased that she's finally taken it, or a little sad? I know that I found it a bit sad when DD's took a bottle as I felt a little bit like I wasn't 'needed' - which is really silly in hindsight! Its so much easier when you know that you can leave them and they can still be fed if anything cropped up and you had to leave her - and just for your benefit too! If poorly or really tired, at least your DP could do extra feeds for you.

How are you feeling Tarti ? Hope you're starting to feel a bit better

Please to note the time I'm posting

Can't really blame Juliet but why oh why do I find it so hard to get back to sleep if woken during the night? She woke up at 3.45am crying for her dummy, was quite difficult actually because of course she was in no state to reason about it, she just knew that she really wanted it :( Quite a lot of shushing/patting/cuddling got her to eventually calm down and she was back asleep by 4.15am. Unlike me...

Agree ALL - great news about C taking the bottle! I've known people for whom that particular hurdle was very troublesome. Don't know if you were the same (or you Kate) but the girls were given bottles really early on in hospital, and we mix-fed for the first 2-3 weeks while they got their strength up, so I didn't have to deal with the transition. Now we're at the other end of it though, they still have their evening bottle before bed - yet another 'thing' to deal with soon!

Kate - so come on, which beds are you eyeing up? Links plz

I'm thinking of doing the move-to-bed transition at the same time (or shortly after) we drop the lunchtime nap properly. Does that sound vaguely sensible? Am just thinking that if they were dog-tired by the time bedtime came around, it might be easier?

Conversation had with J at 3.45am re. her num num, through tears: "I really want my num num back please..." :( - I said "but you've given your num nums to Baby M, haven't you, because you're a big girl now". "But Mummy I don't want to be a big girl"

Boo hoo!

Must be at least lunchtime for you now ladym? Poor you. Sounds like emergency num num stayed safe though? Has j said anything about it this morning?

Was a relief that dd took the bottle though she only had ~4oz milk between 8-4! Means we do still have some in freezer just in case. Not really tried her since she was 4wks but wouldn't take it then & I know others who have had loads of probs with transition. Quite happy to bf forever for now.