The moving castle tea room touches down for the 29th time

[UniS]

Welcome to the tea room. Open to those with one child and those with more and maybe some with none ( hi dave the trucker).

This time we are heading to the mists and mellow fruitfulness of Autumn in a moving castle with a mind of its own. The roaring fire is maintained by magic and Mellors the gardener handles wine and spirits along with massage duties.

The first rule of the tea room is this
No fisticuffs.
The second is this
Put the kettle on for and help yourself to a

And a belated welcome to MPP and GurlieF.
There is a sack of delicious carrots over there for anyone who wishes, and the glavanised bucket is full of brandied hot chocolate for those in need...

I'm sorry about the scorch marks on the floor. I was feeling rather cold yesterday and pushed my hay pile rather too close to the fire...

Oops, sorry. I forgot to say welcome to Girliefriend. Welcome.

I read Cinderella to LittleO tonight. I can't help myself, I can't bring myself to say the prince found cinderella so beautiful he fell in love with her, I instead say they danced and chatted together all evening and got on really well .

I'm thinking of changing my MN name. Amber, will you still know who I am?

SmallBean's adorable!

Toddler still won't let us read more than a page or two at a time, preferring to be "in charge" of the book and the reading/story telling. So right now he has a small book to look at while he's having his final nappy change before bed then we cuddle and look at the book (or a different one, depending on the mood) together before bed.

After waking well past 3:30, we put TS down for bed at his usual time -- start at 7 for 7:15 (didn't need a bath tonight since he climbed in the shower with me this morning) and after a brief bout of kicking the headboard he's off again. Poor Toddler.

There's severe rain and flooding again at home. It took my dad over an hour to get home from work (the journey normally takes 15-20 minutes max).

We have a lot of stories at bedtime - most I enjoy and some I just endure. I don't know why but whilst I will happily read books with Small Bean I detest reading comics. He does however like the Top Gear magazine and will 'read' it for hours.

Hello to Girliefriend and MissPP! I have a Small Bean who is 3.5years and getting extremely bossy. I arrived here a couple of Tearooms ago and thoroughly recommend hanging around - it all does make sense eventually.

Have been at a wedding today - hence the photo. Really lovely day and Small Bean had a fab time because the bride and groom had made a huge effort to make it enjoyable for the children. It makes me feel a bit that when we got married I was so young and naive - providing toys and giftbags for the (few) children never occurred to me.

I wouldn't post this elsewhere but I did have a particularly cringeworthy moment when I spoke to someone else at the table and politely asked how old their DC was. The answer... "DC is nearly two but is incredibly advanced for their age". My stupid reply was "Oh, that's great". What should the correct answer be???

There must be a few bottles of wedding bubbly somewhere...

Bean I'd be tempted to respond with a look of puzzlement, but that's just my reaction to showy-offy parents, given that I spend most of my life with parents of children with very challenging special needs who are every bit as wonderful as any child prodigy.
AandO I have some chance of knowing who you are, but my brain simply loses all the data that goes with it. Makes it more and more challenging to be here when there's lots of namechanges, because people end up as 'strangers' to me. Especially when trying to link their names to names on places elsewhere. No chance at all. I probably end up seeing very rude as a result

isn't the answer
" so they are 1 then?"

One of boys classmates suffers from a father like that. back in June little PFB X " is nearly 6", boy was banging on about this till I told him in firm tones that X is 5 and 3/4, you are 5 and 1/4 they are not nearly 6, they are 5. Unfortunatly boy likes playing with X, I have not warmed to the parents however. But they don;t live nearby so I can mostly avoid them.

Lego mag- Boy loves it, he went on to spend most of an hour studiously making one of teh models suggested in the mag. I don;t mind it tooo much as the model suggestions to make are always from "normal" lego rather than theme stuff.

I have just spent about 2 hours ordering family birthday and christmas presents on Amazon US. 17 items for 8 people, 3 of whom have birthdays between now and christmas. But I can tick that off teh to do list now.

gah! 'seeing' should read 'seeming' in the post above. sigh

Ugh. That get your bragging in first thing is very annoying. Why volunteer such information? If the child is 'advanced' then people will notice and you don't need to point it out (especially if you are trying to suggest that your child's brilliance is something that you personally have created).

We didn't have children at our wedding, as it would have meant another 30 places that we couldn't fit in (and, when push came to shove, I would rather invite four friends than two friends and their two children). That was in the Dark Ages - these days someone would start a MN thread about it!

"Aw, nearly two, what a cute age - mind you, unless DC is really advanced in the potty training department I wouldn't want to go back to it."

In reality I would be duplicating Amber's puzzled look. Which is my default reaction to almost everything, to be fair.

Hello, new people! I have, I think, been here since the beginning, but I forget to show up for ages, sometimes entire tearooms pass me by. Many tearooms ago, I was responsible for introducing the NMBs to the tearoom.

Hello DCMB. Good to see you again. So it was you who brought in the NMBs!

::brushes a few off the distressed chintz sofa::

Maud - we were also in the dark ages. I go to weddings now and think how dated ours must look (although at the time it was the sort of wedding that everyone had iykwim).

:: Prepares puzzled looks for next time::

:: DH comment from other sofa - are you constipated?::

Ahhhh, true love!!!

I like to think that our wedding was timeless good taste ::snort:: unlike one wedding that the photographer had in his show book, where the bride was photographed draped across the bonnet of a pink Cadillac.

Some people name change that bit too often!

Went to school 'curriculum' evening this evening... left slightly late, and went out of door to people speaking french - and saying (in french) 'oh, we speak spanish too!'. Nice

Ds came home with 2 stickers today.... although apparently, when we discussed what he'd done in maths I explained the wrong method to him.. talking about taking away 10s.... Never mind - he clearly completely understood what I was talking about and why we were doing what we were doing... (ie I got him to think about what he did when he added 10 and apply the same logic to taking away 10)

Bean - what a cutie!!!!!

MissPP - it will make sense eventually... stick with it!

Hi both newcomers, I'm the Tea Room's Canadian content, I live on the West Coast near Vancouver so post at odd hours, too (8 hours behind). DS is 3.7 and had his first day of preschool today and loved it!!!!!!! Let's hope he'll still love it next week [fingers crossed].

Great. Huge long post, go to look at Bean's photo and there's a fecking restore error.
Haven't time to type it all again:
Hope all sick people get well soon, all confused people understand/get comfy soon, all returnees hang around a bit longer, all children continue to enjoy school/pre-school.

And everyone else have some and a

That's great JM! It's such a relief when they enjoy themselves.

MT - How is MC? Did you ever go about getting his iq tested? If you feel it is his high iq that is causing his dislike of school and causing him so much upset I think you should go ahead and get him tested. Perhaps then he could go either in an advanced stream in school or else move schools to one which would allow this? Do you think this is the reason he is having such a hard time? How is he in terms of making friends? Is there any possibility of bullying? Or even just feeling excluded and separate from his classmates? Sorry about all the questions but I'm worried for him, and for you, it is horrible when your child is upset.

Amber - I'll pm you with my new name!

AandO, thanks! Though I may still be a bit puzzled for a long time thereafter. This is perfectly normal and may be safely ignored.
Hurrah re all dcs starting school of some sort and enjoying it!
Ah, to go with the rugby match on the tele. Heading off on hols in couple of hours for long weekend away in the Cotswolds. Splendid.

Have a lovely weekend Amber

A&O Dr's appt booked for Monday afternoon - I need help with how to help him even if he doesn't need direct help himself.

So far, so good with school. And he got up happily and we didn't have any 'I don't want to go to school' talk this morning. In fact, the things the teacher was saying at the curriculum meeting last night filled me with hope - because its all starting to encourage them to be independant. MC is very independant already, and thrives on it. I've been very concious of not wanting to treat him in a pfb manner which has probably meant that he has had more independance than some children.

He was first to finish a maths sheet yesterday (or said he was) but then was bothered because he found the 2nd one difficult. Apparently they'd talked through the first one but not the 2nd. The 2nd required them to take 10s away using an unmarked numberline (???). So in the car, I asked him to add 10 to 12 and then add another 10 and think about what was happening with the numbers. He then happily took 10 away from 98.

He makes friends easily - plays with the girls and the boys and appears popular in the the year generally. So I don't think that there is generally any issue of bullying (although one girl has a tendency towards that I think and because she's a sweet, little girl, she has no come back and gets the boys into trouble).

I think he might have a bit of fear of failure - he's very hard on himself - and that makes him sometimes not do something because he perhaps knows it won't be that good (which clearly is a problem re school work). However, one of the key 'issues' is his physicality - just needs lots of exercise like a puppy really.

:: waves at everyone::

Heading off for a couple of weeks holiday. Hoping we will have some sort of reception/connection so I will check in to the moving castle.

Have a lovely weekend!!!

Thanks for making me feel so welcome!!! Lovely cuppa

mistle DD is DREADFUL when she finds something hard, gives up ever so quickly. And I'm afraid I don't deal well with it.

She has come home with a cello today! This is expected, don't worry - just wasn't sure exactly when she would get it. We have to buy a cello book, a black hole and some roisin.

She makes quite a pleasant noise, although I had to take the bow off her as she hasn't actually been taught to use it, and I was afraid she might damage it (okay, and because it wasn't making such a pleasant noise).

Evening all.

I have returned from the land of D&V! All better here and hoping it stays away!

Whose ready for a glass of ?

LittleDeer had a friend from school over today, his parents also came over so I've had a lovely afternoon chatting. He also had new school friends over yesterday! It just worked out that way this week but from now on I wouldn't have two days in a row, the poor child is exhausted . Btw, what age do parents stop accompanying their children on playdates? I quite enjoy them coming along for a chat and think it will be a bit of a shame when they just drop them off.

Yay Tee! Are you so better you can drink wine already? Impressive. I'll join you for a glass...since it's the non allergenic variety here in the tearoom .