Tea Room the Nineteenth

[amberlight]

All in need of a restful break and a chat are more than welcome to the nineteenth Tea Room.

We find ourselves in the South of France, where the warm sunshine is just the thing for those who are missing the summer. The tea room has its aga and its distressed chintz sofa...and its potted plants. The usual fictional tea room inhabitants are here, as ever: Mellors, the gardener/handyperson with the handy ways with massage; the collection of tea room animals including the horses, camel, bison, guineapigs and sundry others; the Bishops and other faith leaders who joined us a while back and potter in for the occasional cuppa. It may not make sense, but that's not important. What matters is the lovely people here and the chance to just relax.

ohhhhhh, thank you T42 I get it now. I'm more used to nounou/ nunu being used to label a dummy or comforter. NOT a phase I ever used meself tho.
I did call it a dummy ,tho I rather like soother, and boys comforter is just called " your cloth" . He only wanted a cloth ( age 3.6) because Alfie in the shirley hughes stories has a blanket.

Phone call still not made as chap I need to talk to was not available .Add it to tomorrows jobs list. I think boy will be watching a pile of videos tomorrow while I do lots of cooking. Need / want to leave mum with main meals that just need re-heating or simple cooking . She and dad are coming to stay and looking after boy for 3 evenings and 2 days while I'm working.
See you after the weekend. I may not be back before then.

I had a very cute baby ghostie tonight.

Awww sweet, Scout. Are you counting down the days?

ahhhhh oooooooooowwwwww

Eleven more sleeps, including tonight -- but who's counting?

awww scout - have you photos of him?

Our pumpkin is No More. It did sterling service for 3 nights (yes, I know) but this morning it has collapsed so is destined for the compost heap. Or the bin if I can't fit it in the compost.

tea - lol re. Eccles' nounou!

UniS - see you later!

How lovely to be here! I cn feel the warm breeze and have just been for a paddle in the warm warm sea

I heart you tea roomers so much, how lovely you are

UniS - a nounou is French word for a nanny so I guess this is Eccles daycare walker!

JM thank you for your thoughts, how amazing to have warm thoughts from Check Shirt Wearing Mounties - though happily OxBoy has no calamaties in his lovely 4 year old life. He is being very lovely at the moment

Scout - listen to Small she is a Wise Woman. You can always step up to GiC in time, but I also suspect it is one of those things that once you say yes all others run to the hills and so you can't try it for 6 months find it too much and then drop it again

Amber, thanks for the tea - I hope the tea and prayers are helping

Roslily THREE STEPS!! that is wow and wonderful and so glad you saw them!

For ages Oxboy would move and I'd miss him just turn and find him elsewhere!

UniS Oxbloke will be home by Christmas but not sure how much before then.....

I love the NMBs sporting teeny tiny grass skirts made from Lavender

Morning all.
Yay re three steps Roslily!
Arrgh re potential disappearance of OxPoppin.
And long absence of Oxbloke, too.

I've definitely overdone it. Not able to concentrate on one single thing at the moment. Need a holiday. Only 9 days to go...

Pictures up on the other site, but you can't see the white/pale ghostie face so well. But honestly, BabyScout was covered in powder (talic) and looked like a ghostie. And one of the girls brought a sombrero for a game and put it on him.

Awww, roslily, steps! VERY exciting!!! I still have a cruiser. He likes to think he can walk, but he can't. I got a bit of a shuffle/foot slide out of him, but that's about it. I'm glad you got to see it!

I don't like the term dummy. At home it's commonly "pacifier". So I try to use that, or "paci." I never wanted him to have one, but it saved breastfeeding and helped his reflux. I got him down to just sleeping, but since he's aggressively working on teeth he seems to continuously have one (rarely sucking, constanting gnawing on it). Drives me crazy but it's not a battle I'm choosing to fight.

Happy Wednesday, lovely tea room and even lovelier tea room ladies! You are all so wise and wonderful!!

(I wish he'd give in to his nap before his injections....)

Does anyone know -- is Victoria Station pushchair friendly? We're going to be there Friday and I'm wondering if I need to start practicing my "mother in distress" face for assistance carrying BabyScout up steps.

There is no step-free access to the underground there, but can't tell you any more useful detail

steps to access underground, mainline is flat and pretty spacious, underground always seems to have staff about in ticket hall. If all else fails look for a commuter dad/ mum.

Scout - tis a station I know vairy well train station is fine, underground lots of steps (steps only for District/Circle and steps and escalator for Victoria line)

However, with considerable buggy experience in the environs I was always helped. Right now there is a 15 year building project so it is jolly mayhemy avoid in rush hour if you can and leave a little extra time for getting lost/ facing the wrong way!

"But...he took 3 steps unaided!"

How did I miss that????

WAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Everything Oxeye says about Victoria is, alas, true. It is hellish in the rush hour. But people are generally willing to help - commuters probably more than staff.

Thanks ladies!

It's been two years or so since I've been to Victoria (at least, that's the last time I can remember) and I had Guides with me via overland trains so I honestly couldn't remember what the Underground was like. I'm going down for a volunteer event organized through MrScout's work (he's not going, but the coordinator was happy to have BabyScout and I join in). When I realized it went on until 6 p.m. I emailed and said I needed to leave early as I don't "fancy the hell that is the Victoria Line during a Friday night rush-hour with a baby and a pushchair." Not actually sure what time rush-hour starts any more (stopped working in London 13 months ago emoticon).

BabyScout is a miserable mess of a baby interrupted morning nap, way-to-short afternoon nap AND an injection today. He's just cranky. I may regret it, but I've put him to bed 30-45 minute early because he just couldn't handle being up any more. He also doesn't seem to like the shredder, but I have LOADS still to shred any tips? I was doing it earlier while he was napping but he woke up screaming (don't know if it was the shredder, his leg, teeth, etc) and would get upset whenever I did it when he was up. Will try again when he's deeply asleep, and might move the shredder into the kitchen (as far away from his room as possible).

Oui, Veuve Cliquit est une tres bonne idee! Salud!

Sorry I couldn't be around to help with the move; was in bed all day yesterday with French cold. Will no doubt improve now that we are down here in the sun (although this is where I caught it).

Tea, so sorry to hear about TeaNanna. I think flowers even without a card would be appropriate for GreatAunt. The thing is, to keep on going with the flowers/telephone calles/letters/little presents in the post etc when everyone else has forgotten. Which will probably be surprisingly soon.

Oxeye, will it be traumatic for OxBoy, if you lose OxPoppins? How will you deal with that? Will she keep in touch with him? And you?

CMOT, just had an experience today, which made me think of you and your teacher who you think doesn't like Tiddler. You really need to work on this as a parent. Can you think of something on which you could compliment the teacher? Do they have a parents' forum/some kind of feedback where you could tell the Head something nice about the teacher. It will get back to her, make her feel good about herself, you and thence Tiddler. I know that it is wrong, but teachers are only too human and generally under attack from all sides, so are most surpised by a bit of positive feedback. I know, because a parent today apparently complained that 'I don't interact enough with the children' when they are having their half hour's free play on a Friday afternoon. I thought, stupid woman, whatever you say to me now about anything is going to be coloured by the fact that you seemed really friendly to my face then complained behind my back to my boss, which got me thinking how much I would have liked it if something nice had been reported, and how, when that does happen, how it makes me feel a bit more tolerant of the child as well as th mother ... Wrong, but human, I'm afraid.

Now, I have a question for any teachers/people pf a religious persuasion who may drop into the tea room. I have to run a day about St Nicholas on 6th December (obviously) and need some ideas. Any age from 4 to 11, lots of ICT, art, music, food, some religious education, even. Not just sticking cottonwool onto Santas. Any ideas?

Oh, and hi to Roslily, which I don't think I have said yet, although I have been reading all your posts. I don't really have anything helpful I can add; others have said it all so much better than I could.

I am an RE teacher if that helps! Off top of my head you could do some freeze framing, where groups take sections of story and create a sculpture/free frame of that scene- then you put it all together as a story.

Making stained glass windows with meaning of story- so younger ones will just be pics of st nic, but older ones could do something more interesting around meaning.

Get them to write/draw/act out modern versions os story

Make a storybook for younger children.

If I think of anything else I'll get back to you.

I have had a mental day at work, inlcuding a 13yo swearing at me and causing havoc.

MrScout not coming home until gone midnight tonight. Am soooo tired that I'm tempted to wash up my dinner dishes, get the overnight baby stuff ready and go crawl into bed with tv.

Oooh, Roslily, that is a help! I am RE coordinator in a primary school. Main qualifiction for coordinating anything seems to be to have no qualification or possibly aptitude for that subject whatsoever. Over the years I have got really interested in it, though. I do RE rather like a secondary teacher would do - one lesson a week, with seven days for each class to forget it all. I am always struggling with making it fun, memorable, creative and interesting enough for them to forgive me for the fact that I am not their beloved class teacher. May have to get back to you often. I find Islam particularly tricky to teach, due to lack of knowledge, and Christianity due to its boring earnestness. Though I am sure that that isn't what it is really like.

Scout go to bed! Am so tired I can't be bothered to eat the rather awful supper I have cooked and am drinking wine while planning lessons and allowing Wriggle to drop mashed potato all over the floor for the dog to eat eat in the sitting room in front of Poirot.

In bed, cozy with my pillows and blankets, my laptop, notebook and pen, and tv. BabyScout is sleeping peacefully. Dinner is tidied away. Overnight milk is sorted if needed. Life is good.

I HATE my self-injections. OUCH!

Have decided I need to tell somone I don't want to step up to GiC in September. Problem is I don't know if I tell my current GiC or the DC.

Popcorn and cheesie tv, anyone?

What are you watching on cheesy TV, Scout? We're watching Nigel Slater, who is another one of my inappropriate crushes.