Favouritism is an odd one, I have mentioned it to her to let her know I had noticed it but she didn't seem to think it was a bad thing, and basically admitted it was because she has two daughters so girls are sort of a known quantity, but a grandson is more fun being different. The thing is that she already had two grandsons, so S is not a unique phenomenon - indeed R is unique as the only granddaughter! It's clear she loves R too, but in terms of who gets reached for to cuddle, sit on her lap, have one to one play, get given food etc it's all S.
I'll have to mention it and try to get her to agree it has to be toned down. I didn't want to raise it this time because things were already tetchy - she came down with a cold as I mentioned, and used it as an excuse for an unforgivable outburst at my Dad in front of wider family - told him to shut up and he was embarrassing himself by not letting anyone speak (which he was not guilty of). She is not the type to ever cause a scene at all, but by all accounts (I was out of the room when it happened), the room went quiet and it was horribly awkward. She must have something bugging her to behave like that so I need to get to the bottom of that and address the favouritism too.
Sorry for the stream of thought!
tarti I think mucky's advice and weighing up was excellent a few posts back. I think it sounds like a host of good reasons to do it. My question would be whether you could consider some other area to move to apart from Sheffield so the commute isn't quite so heavy for DH - it sounds an awful long one, and frankly I'd say you don't want it to be so uneven handed for who's nearest to nursery/school when it comes to any emergencies or even extracurricular stuff - the burden will all be yours if he's a couple of hours away when needed. Or would it be family helping out then?
mucky was the girls' cousin the one who's the prodigy according to her mum? Any nuggets of competitive parenting to share from Xmas?
The twins are being brilliant for us while we're off work - every day they wake about normal time (6.15 ish) but chatter happily until we haul ourselves out of bed to get them up. For the first time in absolutely ages we have managed to lie in until 7.45 without it all kicking off, which has been so nice. Finally a payoff for having two at once - I presume most singletons would get bored in their rooms alone but ours entertain each other until we go in! Oh, and the play kitchen is going down really well. They love it - also got stuff like some duplo and a doll's pushchair and it's all very popular.
What are everyone's NY plans? We're out with friends in London, sharing a babysitter and staying over so that should be good.