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[ladymuckbeth]

Here we go. More unexpurgated chat about our darling angels, all of whom are gifted and have exceptionally calm and admirably-coping parents.

Yes - Happy Birthday J & E! Glad you survived Mucky, & so much progress with your house in such a short time too. Very impressed!

I set myself lots of targets over the weekend for house things & achieved none of them as we are in the midst of another vague, lingering icky bug thing. W has only thrown up once on Friday but poor C has been the worst. Think it must be a viral gastro thing as it's very similar to the thing the boys had on their 1st bday: milk intolerance and creamy, pale poo (sorry!). But not actually ill as such so that's something. Dp & I have taken turns to feel rough - I couldn't muster the energy to get off the sofa on Sat afernoon!

My parents arrived today have yet to share the joy of potential for icky bug. They're on a coach tour thing & staying in a hotel so not actually seen them yet. Good choice not to keep the boys out of nursery today . Now just need to decide what we're doing for the next few days, making sure they're back at the hotel in time for their evening meal .

Boys have brought a lovely bag of their Christmas arty creations home from nursery today. They were so excited to show us everything & hang their decs on the tree etc. They did a letter to Santa' in which they stuck pics of toys from the Argos catalogue.... both have scooters on & that explains Jack's recent I neeeeeeeed a `cooter' outbursts. Shame Father Christmas didn't let us in on that before we got bikes. Sure they'll love them anyway.

Sorry it's late, Happy Birthday J & E!

God, so annoyed, I wrote a long post at the weekend and now I've come back to find it's not been posted

Anyway, in summary, M is totally defeating me with her horrific tantrums at the moment. Other than that all fine, DH has had a pretty good job offer from a company near Derby which is obviously a big move for us so mulling that over whilst dealing with manic last week of term and sorting Christmas...

So glad the party was ok mucky and that your sitting room got done in time. Lovely pics of the girls on fb.
lavita I keep catching fleeting glimpses of you on other threads
ALL sorry you're dealing with lurgy once again. I've got a dodgy tum today and am quaking at the thought of a house full of norovirus for Christmas!

Love to all, my New Years resolution is to write more on this thread, you have all been brilliant at various times when I've needed advice, a moan or just an equally awful/hilarious twin anecdote - I need more of this at the moment! X

Forgot to mention nursery 'nativity' on Tuesday - both girls bolted into the audience on seeing us and spent the duration cowering on our knees refusing to sing.
They both also cried when Father Christmas visited their Christmas party yesterday

How annoying tarti.

Cerub - I have been meaning to comment on the bottle thing although have been too self-absorbed to remember - basically would you believe we have JUST thrown ours in the bin. I remember thinking when the girls were about a year that you are 'meant' to get them off the bottle, but then asked around and nobody seems to pay a blind bit of notice to that particular edict. Our girls have kept their evening bottle until recently, although a problem with that for us was that E, who never really took to a dummy, was still using the bottle for comfort and so in times of illness etc, we'd find ourselves using the bottle for her more and more. I've been keen to get rid of them for a while but was nervous about ditching them completely. However, prompted by E this week who said she was too much of a big girl to have milk out of a bottle any more, I threw them all away and it's been easy. I think one reason I held onto them was that I could know that even if they didn't eat much dinner, they'd always reliably sink a bottle of milk just before bed, and of course was hoping this would help them stay full until the morning.

tarti - that's great news about the job! Does this mean a potential move Midlands-wards?

I hear you re. the tantrums. We're having a bit of a time with it with J too, which seems to have got much worse since her trip to hospital.

I failed my driving test yesterday

sorry or lack of posts, have been so busy procrastinating about everything lately, lots of driving lessons, busy with the jewellery, busy with tantruming, naughty toddlers, who have drawn all over our kitchen wall and are generally terrible little nightmares

Good news is that the girls finally start nursery in Jan, only 2 mornings a week, yay! Their nursery teacher came for a home visit o meet them and she was lovely, the girls were being amazingly cute and well behaved (it was almost unnerving!)

Lots of Christmas love and cheer to you all!

Ooh Tarti - potentially more than `just' a house move then! Is the thought exciting or unsettling?

I'm hoping our current lurgy means everyone will be well by Xmas . C is still throwing up on occasion & is v clingy. Seems to be threatening with bronchiolitis again too . Boys just have the obligatory snottiness & cough at the mo so I guess that's good....

We're def in the midst of a new stubborn no/don't like/can't/not yet/not listening/NOphase' with J. Exciting week for them tho cos my parents have been. Worst bit was 90mins of wailing at 10pm the other night cos he didn't like his room / bed / Daddy. I think scary monsters' prob came into it somewhere but didn't get to the bottom of that one. An exciting day today - took them to their first concert. A 45min lunchtime jazz / Xmas music thingy. Booked a box so we didn't disturb others if they played up. J refused to come in to begin with, then came in but was pretty uncooperative other than clapping. We ended up leaving a couple of songs before it finished as a meltdown from all 3 was about to ensue. Was OK considering I suppose.

Couple of days to recover, shop, wrap and clean then the ILs arrive.....

Oh Lavita . What happened? I guess it's a pain more than anything knowing you've got to pay again just to jump through the hoop before you get that freedom. Are you rebooking to do asap?

Thanks ALL just tried to book again but next available is Feb!

I just mucked up my parallel park aarrgghh so annoyed with myself because normally I'm fine, just went to pot a bit. Only 6 minors which is good as you are allowed 15. More practise needed! Annoying as it's cost me about 1k so far so let's add another £300 in the hope I pass next time!

Sorry to hear that LVB. All the best people take a couple of goes to pass though she lamely reassures herself. You can at least take comfort from the fact that you didn't pull out in front of another car at a roundabout within 30 seconds of leaving the test centre like me a friend of mine. Luckily back then parallel parking wasn't in the test or it might have taken me my friend a few more goes to pass! I reckon it's tricky at the best of times, let alone under exam conditions.

Poor ALL with illness and big tantrums to contend with on top of Xmas. I hope the dreaded bronchiolitis doesn't materialise for all your sakes, especially pool old C. I like the way your expectations are so low that the music concert was "OK considering"!

When would the move happen if you go for it tarti? Have you started putting out feelers for your own work situation, and would it be tricky to move during term time? Presume so.

Much belated happy returns to the girls, mucky. Did they enjoy all the celebrations? Must be the first year they've really got the concept of a special day. The house improvements sound as though they've gone as hoped too, we'll done.

Am up at a stupid hour as I'm suffering with completely achey muscles everywhere. Not presaging flu or anything, just some kind of muscular imbalance I think that has been building since the weekend. I've got a headache from the neck bit of it and simply can't get comfy in bed because my legs feel as though they've got the leg equivalent of toothache. It's probably a combination of emotional tension (Xmas/work) and wearing boots that encourage bad posture or something.

Last day of work today (from home) and I still have about two-thirds of the wrapping to do, so will try and fit that in while the house is quiet. Tomorrow the MIL descends, then my folks. Our strategy this year is to gently encourage everyone to please themselves, get themselves food/drink, take themselves off for walks etc if needed, so we're not all feeling we have to entertain/be entertained, feed/be fed and spend all hours together. That's the spirit of Christmas right?

Aww, poo LVB. Such a shame there can't be some system where driving instructors can't be tasked with assessing & awarding when they deem you're a good driver. Though I guess that'd be open to abuse if you're paying for lessons. I had an horrendous lesson prior my test. Very nearly totally missed a pedestrian crossing during the test.... and was so determined to make sure the examiner knew I'd seen pedestrians during my manouvre that I was seriously in danger oif being failed for hestiating. But passed with few minors & looked great on paper. Then had a scary first drive in my new-to-me car just after (foot slipping on accelarator when cornering, wrong way up one way street .... and then did a big motorway drive. All a bit pot luck really. Not that that helps you.

That's our pressies wrapped tonight - phew, feel we're getting there. Supposed to get the bloody wendy house from my parents after all, but we're thinking it might not happen. We'll see. Have just done tags `from Santa' for some of my parent's pressies as there are comparatively so many. & dp is off now for a couple of weeks too, which is lovely. Tho seeing fb posts from work colleagues glad it's the end of term is really bringing home that return to work / real life is getting scarily close now!

I hope your muscle aches have eased now Cerub, and that your visitors have arrived and the vino is flowing. Tis here... tho dd has just woken.

Poor you LVB - very bad luck. As Cerub says if parallel parking had been in my test all those decades ago there'd be no WAY I'd have passed. It took me at least a decade to master it! Actually, I wouldn't say I've mastered it yet, and I've now been driving 25 years..

Hope everyone's Christmasses are coming along nicely. We are guest-free for a few days now and really relishing it. DH and I have been having one of our down patches, I'm sure not helped by him still being out of work and therefore around a lot. Also money is now getting very tight and that never helps matters. Very urgent for him to get work in the new year now... My mother comes back for another visit on Boxing Day, and on Christmas Day we travel down to my bro's to see his family, plus his g/f's family, and my mother who is staying there too. Mum phoned me yesterday to tell me that my DN came home from nursery yesterday with chicken pox, so did we still want to come down and basically knowingly infect the girls with it. Bit of a dilemma but I've chosen to go ahead, so we're no doubt going to be spending the first half of January holed up at home nursing a pair of poxy toddlers. Might be the incentive I need to finally confront potty training...

I'm about to wrap up the girls' pressies and taking stock of what they've got and wondering if it's too much/not enough. An extra big gift that has been added at the last minute is a Jake & Neverland pirate ship, from pooling together money they got for their birthday and Christmas from my grandfather (so sweet of him). I am beside myself with excitement about how much they're going to love it, although am in shock at how ridiculously expensive Disney stuff is to buy - now I know why I'm such a Disney-phobe in general!

Mulled wine and mince pies to all - no doubt I'll be back to post over the festive period but wanted to wish you all lots of marvellous Christmas cheer :)

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you are all getting on great and getting into the Christmas wine spirit. Sorry for the lack of posting of late, I've been reaaly manic at work. Have been longing for the holidays thinking if I can just survive until then but to be honest it's just a temp reprieve, all the same problems will be there in the new year but at least I can ignore them all for 10 days

The kids are all getting very excited by Christmas. I'm a bit worried that it won't live up to their expectations as their stockings are full of books, clothes and practical things li,e hot waters bottles. Not exactly the toy and chocolate fest that they might want. Their present from us is a trampoline, which I know they will love but in reality won't get the use of until spring. But tough it's too late to change now, so they just have to lump it.

LVB sorry to hear about your test. I failed first time too. Better luck next year. LadyM, hope things I prove for you and dh finds a job in the new year. Tarti, sounds like you are in for an exciting new year too, derby is great, DB lived there for a while. All and cerub and kate, hope things go well for you too. Roll on 2013

Merry Christmas from all of us too . Finished the last bits of wrapping today & dp has assembled the kitchen, bikes & trikes so that's the important bits done before the ILs arrive tomorrow. Done most of shopping today but still need a few odds and ends and the turkey & to ice/decorate the cake.

Excitement here too. J still keeps saying Santa Claus is bringing him a `cooter. W reckons Santa Claus is coming to our house to give him a bike. One happy chappy anyway... We do need to get our story straight for next year though...

Been out for a Xmas meal with friends tonight & J was so excited that their dd gave him a little present (wasn't that small & they all exchanged gifts...). Then he had a total meltdown when we got home. He seems to have taken a real dislike to his room & bed . Managed to persuade him that Pooh Bear was tired & needed him to lie next to him while he went to sleep

I hope your visitor-free time is just what you & dh need Mucky. Never easy having a stream of visitors but especially not if you're feeling the strain anyway - I hope 2013 brings good job news & maybe not pox? But then again... I know what you mean about looking forward to hols but knowing same probs there when you get back Chesti - I hope you can forget about it all & enjoy your break .

I failed first time too lavita and am still shit at parking.
mucky my DH and I are going though a pretty bad patch too. Hey ho, I'm brushing it under the carpet for now... You're right that money worries and work stress (or lack of work stress) magnify everything out of all proportion. God knows how we are going to make this decision about whether to move, I'm fairly loathe to sacrifice my friends and support networks up here to further his career at the moment with the way things are tbh. Probably sounds more dramatic than it is, in any case I'm postponing all thoughts on the matter until 2013.
Hope you're all feeling well prepared. I was just thinking I had everything pretty much sorted and wrapped when I remembered the doll's house in the garage which has yet to be assembled... Plus cake yet to be iced and no mince pies made as yet. Only got mum staying though, 24th-27th, and she's more a help than a hindrance so can't complain! Think I will dispatch DH and the girls to soft play in the morning so I can get some stuff done.
Kids have really done me in today, tantrums and neediness... I remember reading an Ann Tyler novel about a woman who walks out on her family and starts a new, quiet uneventful life somewhere else - I think I came close at about 6pm!
Happy Christmas everyone anyway, I'm sure I'll be back with more festive cheer over the next few days

ALL I've done the same thing with a few presents from the in laws as there's way too much ( as usual!)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I've been awake since 6am to soothe Juliet back to sleep from a nightmare. I then proceeded to have an hour-long coughing fit and caved in and got up. The girls are still asleep - bet it's the last Christmas we can say that for at 8am in the morning... - and I'm sitting here staring at the pressies under the tree, the half eaten mince pie by the fireplace and the carrot stub in Rudolph's bowl Still getting my head around being the custodian of all these childhood rituals and realising we haven't a clue what we're doing! I had thought for soem reason we'd be saying all presents were from Father Christmas, now realising that's a bit stupid. Ah well... hopefully the girls will be so gobsmacked by the general Christmassyness of it all they won't care. So sweet how excited they've been, in fact J when I went in and she was tossing and turning in her sleep said "I want to see wudolph... the... wed-nosed... weeeeiinndeer".

I hear stirrings upstairs. I should probably be Doing Things other than being on MN on this festive day but I feel so shattered (late night too faffing about) that all I can bear to do is sit here with a bloody Lemsip.

Anyway - Happy Christmas to all. xxx

Merry Christmas

Happy Christmas lovelies!
We were up at 6.15 so it's been a looong old day
Girls loved it all and had no idea who anything was from. Next year I am going to beef up the stockings and tone down the under-the-tree presents I think, as opening the stockings was by far the nicest bit and by the time we got halfway through the other presents they had totally lost the plot.
Must get to bed, am utterly shattered - hope you've all had fun, I look forward to the festive debriefs! X

Festive debrief tomorrow... am bloody knackered tonight! xx

Happy Christmas for yesterday. Hope all the littlies had fun and the grown ups had enough to drink!

I've had to come upstairs on my own for 20 mins just to have a bit of room to exhale. Am seriously tempted to say next year the grandparents go somewhere else, as if that would ever be allowed. My mum has caught a the inevitable cold that she's always on pins and needles waiting for, and let's just say is not being stoic about it. She is also displaying quite blatant favouritism of S to the near exclusion of any attention for R. I can't let that go on much longer, not by the time they are big enough to notice.

Such a lot of presents yesterday, and we called a halt before we'd gone through them all so there is more to do. Lunch was excellent and I got some lovely presents.

I don't know, it just didn't really feel like fun yesterday, IYKWIM? Just so much faffing from all concerned - not the easygoing bunch you'd hope for, who unobtrusively lend a hand without a performance, anticipate when the children are getting overwrought, or take the food that they want without telling you repeatedly that there is too much and they hate waste. Maybe next year? (which keeps on being my mantra)...

Merry Christmas everyone. Getting a slightly stressed and overwrought vibe from the thread at the moment. Hopefully in a couple of days (when the visitors depart?) you' 'll be looking back with fondness.

Quite quiet here, just the 4 of us and my parents for Christmas (and they are just across town, so only an afternoon there). As I feared the day was a bit of a let down for the boys - when I agreed it was finally Christmas (having been asked every morning for a month) they got excited, "Build a snowman then 4 birthdays!!!" And all Magnus wanted was a yoyo (as that was because Peppa got it in the Christmas episode I ignored him, not expecting him to keep going on about it).

Very bad news is I am losing my crown on my tooth just after a final attempt to stick it back in (very little tooth to attach it to). So expensive implant here I come.

That's annoying about your crown rattling - hope you manage to get it replaced easily. I have heard of a few toddlers who requested a yoyo this Christmas just like Peppa

OK I really need your thoughts on this potential move:

DH has been offered a better job in Derby (we are currently in the NE). The money is not a huge leap from where he is now, but he currently does a mixture of employed/self employed, the employed bit is a rolling short term contract so not much security and whilst he is reasonably (but not brilliantly) well paid, his status there is fairly modest. The new job is essentially a gradual handover from the MD of a small company who wants to retire in the next couple of years. It will never be megabucks but DH would be taking over the management of it in the foreseeable future so would have an increasing share of the profits. It's the kind of work he currently does for one day a week, self employed, which he enjoys more than the teaching he does at the University for the other four days.
I teach three days a week in a school I have mixed feelings about, but it's the school I started in so I am very comfortable there, have a good network and am well established, they usually accommodate what I want in terms of timetable and there is the potential to go full time again when I want to.
I have a lot of good friends up here. Some from pre-DCs and some whose kids are the same age with whom I spend the majority of my SAHM days.
However my Mum (who's widowed) lives in Sheffield, where I grew up and still have some friends. My sister lives in Macclesfield now with her husband and toddler. I miss them both terribly and would love to be nearer (in addition, I am watching my Mum deal with looking after her own elderly mother at a distance of around 3.5 hrs drive which is emotionally and physically exhausting, not to mention expensive, for her). This seems to be a golden opportunity... (DH's work is extremely 'niche' and there are very few places in the country doing what he does so there are unlikely to be further opportunities in the forseeable future).
WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO?! I asked him this morning what he would do if he were single, he said he would take the job. I said then let's do it, and he backtracked and said with the family to consider he wasn't sure it would be the best thing for us. I can't think straight to be honest.
I do like the idea of a move to Sheffield as the area where I grew up is absolutely lovely. But would I be giving up too much. Teaching jobs are in theory very transportable but there's very little about in the current climate and certainly not in the middle of a school year. Plus that would be anywhere from a 1-2hr commute for DH depending on traffic. I don't want to live in Derby. Would consider Derbyshire (Peak District) but think nice houses will be expensive plus it might feel isolated and in winter I would probably lose any benefit of being closer to Mum and sister due to cut off roads etc.

Am rambling now. Can anyone offer any thoughts?!? Thanks in advance...

If you move Tarti you will be nearer to us for a potential meet up!

I think Mucky will be the best to answer this, but I would write a really big pro's and con's list together.
Are you certain about the school/work situation? Are there not mid term maternity cover positions or cover teacher work, not ideal but to tide you over?
When does the job start? You need Phil & Kirstie to show you the area, I'd be sending the researchers at aLocation, Location, Location a quick email

How did you end up in the NE?

Would you like me to do some house research? What's the budget and area? I love right move and prime location!

Oh tarti secretly pleased you have asked for advice so I don't have to offer it unsolicited regardless

I would do it. I think. If you're not wedded to the area you're in currently for anything other than a job you have mixed feelings about, and friends that post-move you wouldn't be that far from in the grand scheme of things... then IMO you should go for it. Do you have any career aspirations for the longer term which might be thwarted/enhanced were you to move? It sounds perfect for DH (which I realise doesn't necessarily mean perfect for either you or for the family) - would he resent it if you decided against?

It's an interesting twist of fate that this opportunity has come up at a time when you were thinking of moving anyway, isn't it?

One thing I do when it comes to making decisions is to try to imagine how I'd feel one way or the other having made the decision. If you decided to go for it, how would you feel? A mixture of nervous and excited? If you decided against, would you feel a bit disappointed that you'd opted to stay with things being the same? From what you've said I think it sounds as though -

DH's career has everything to gain from the move
Your career could initially be held back but in the medium/long-term maybe not suffer..?
Your links to family would feel stronger
(Where are DH's family based..?)
Both of you would be starting afresh re. friends..?

Back later to write more. But for now, I think it all sounds very very excited, and congrats to your DH for being offered what sounds like a fantastic job for him! :)

That should read 'excit ing ' - and ditto what LVB says re. being closer for potential meet-ups!