The Nordic Tearoom (Number 31)

[beanandspud]

We have moored the barge for the winter and have moved to a beautiful, cosy log cabin in deepest Scandinavia overlooking a frozen lake and surrounded by pine trees.

Mellors has lit the log fires and candles, it is snowing outside and there are comfortable seats for everyone and fleecy blankets to snuggle up in. For the more active tearoomers there are skis and sledges outside as well as a steaming hot tub for winding down after a busy day.

So pull up a chair. The kettle is on for and there is always plenty of depending on your mood and time zone. (Alternatively there is schnapps, smorgasbord and smoked fish).

Everybody is welcome ? share as much or as little as you like ? but no fisticuffs please!

Haha, JM - miniThumb had such a whingy day yesterday, pretty much from the moment he woke up! He's been better today, thank goodness!

I think we're going to see Arthur Christmas this Tuesday afternoon - it's Cheap Ticket day at the local place, and not school holidays yet, so we should be ok - although it's only got 3 showings and one we won't get to in time unless we miss playgroup (unthinkable!), the other may be a little close to after-school time (2:50pm, not sure when the little schools let out here). Not going 3D though - miniT won't keep the specs on.

Boo to all plaguey illnesses and hurrah to happy husbands building walls/rockeries etc.

Have just been told on another thread that apparently amazon.co.uk vouchers may ONLY be used at amazon.co.uk, btw. I'm sure someone had already discovered this but it has been confirmed.

Well. Now we know about amazon vouchers.

Oh, JB has just been complaining about bloody everything. I don't want these PJs, I don't like underwear, I don't want my teeth brushed, I don't like this, I don't like that, I don't like the other thing, I don't like anything. FFFFNNNAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is nothing that young folk cannot find to complain about. This has been my experience of running toddler groups, herding FineLad and his friends about for many years, and helping with Junior Church and school Governor things.

Have a Or maybe more than one.

My sister just turned 28 and she does nothing but complain. Heck, I'm 37 and I still enjoy a good whinge-fest every now and again!

(U.S.) Presents wrapped, except one but I have to to wait for the receipiant to go to bed (she works nights so will be off to bed soon having only been home from work for an hour). Next job -- Christmas cards. I wrote the envelopes out in the UK so I didn't have to drag my address book across and risk it getting lost or forgotten so all I have to do is write them out/sign them. And I need to find boxes to post parcels.

Oh, and pack. I need a packing fairy, I think.

Phew, Scout! That sounds very well organised.

My recollection of events is that toddlers rant because they are frustrated that they can't make themselves understood. The Girl used to burble away at me and then, if I failed to comprehend, gave me a withering look that said "oh really, mother". Then by about the age of four she had a keen sense of natural justice; anything and everything was unfair and a massive infringement of her civil liberties, for which she would take various forms of industrial action, mostly consisting of noisy sit-down protests.

::Unis clasps oxeye to her bossom:: Ox your a bloody marvel, THANK YOU for admitting that ox boy is still on the rosie etc Cbbeies side of life. Talking to parents of boys school mates you'd think they were ALL watching nowt but CITV and CBBC. I NOW its not a competition but I was starting to wonder if boy was the least adventurous year one TV watcher. ( iPlayer actully but its close)

::Joins in general bosom clasping::

My possibly unreliable memory is that in Y1 there was a real mix between CBeebies and CBBC - The Girl watched both but some children were firmly one or the other. What started even in Reception, though, was some of the tough nuts sneering at the children who still watched CBeebies. It was these tough nuts who also sneered at The Girl for wearing her Winnie the Pooh vest and knickers to school.

Do you think some of these parents might just be posturing, UniS? I would counter by saying that UniBoy only watches programmes presented by Professor Brian Cox.

Yes, Toddler definitely gives me the look of "You stupid woman, why aren't I doing what I've asked you to do" even though we have NO clue what he's saying to us. It frustrates him to no end.

Toddler is the proud new owner of not one, but TWO new incissors. Maybe we should bring him to the States to finish teething and they'd cut much more quickly! He's still lopsided looking with the fourth tooth no where near ready to cut and the first one almost all the way through.

Somehow we have wayyyyy too much cr@p to pack. Seriously, we need a packing elf or fairy.

:: Adds additional bosoms to the general clasping ::

I'm very relieved to hear that some of your Y1/2 children are still into cBeebies. Even at nursery I hear children talking about Ben 10, Transformers etc. and I'm always a bit . Small Bean isn't the least bit interested thank goodness and tbh some of these programmer look way too sophisticated for me ::old-fashioned emoticon::

We had a good day at a Christmas fair today. Lots of nice foodie things and gifts. Would anyone care for a mulled and fruit cake.

Rosie - check. Octonauts - check. Mr Maker - double check. I can cook -mdouble check. Night Garden, Zingzillas, Tweenies, Bob The Builder , Postman Pat - no, no no.

I quite miss the Tweenies.

We went to a lovely Christmas fair too, Bean. Could it have been the same one?

Just curious for those of you who have boys older than Toddler, do you sit and watch the (previously) mentioned programs with them or just let them get on with it? I've watched (with or without Toddler) some of the shows mentioned and would rather put pins in my eyes than repeat the experience. And I'm normally a big fan of quality-- children's television.

Oh dear -- Toddler has just seen the toys (from the Camp Directors) going into the suitcases and wants to explore them....

Oh.... and he's already tried to unwrap/open AuntScout's wrapped Christmas present.

I think you are further south Maud? So possibly not the same one.

I do love this time of year - today was such a cold, bright, wintery day - perfect for wrapping up warm and wandering around stately home gardens before retiring to a RL tearoom for hot chocolate and cake!

Lovely sunny windy day. I have perfected sitting pretending to watch above programmes. It gets easier. Octonauts is quite educational, really, and I Can Cook suggests many an evening meal. C harlie and Lola is quality viewing!

. We drove all the way to Manchester to see the Charlie and Lola exhibition a few years ago.

I couldn't remember where in the country you were, Bean. We were at a famous public school in the sarf.

::general hugs and would I had a bosom to clasp too ness::

Oxboy is very young in his home tastes to be honest - he wants bob the builder toys for christmas and tonight watched chuggington. We watch iplayer and I tape shows so we can get what we want. I don't mind at all, in part he is doing so many grown up things at school he has reverted at home - relaxing I think - in the same way that I love a good bit of chick lit at the end of a long day - it's not that I can't do Scheherazade or Proust but why not relax? I think we can worry too much about it all being progress and stimulation. Same way I end up undressing, bathing, drying and putting on PJs for boy at night. He can do it, but its nice to be snuggled isn't it? (and of course I am a push over...)

I greatly sympathise with Maud, Girl and the sit-ins - we have that too, I wonder if my policy of always explaining to the boy has come back to haunt me - everything requires a debate, a vote, an appeal system, legislation --- sometimes I think to hell with ruddy democrary I should have gone for dictatorship and blind obedience ::reaches for ::

As to watching tv Scout, I do a bit of both - I watch/ doze / snuggle or get bath and bed ready. That's the evening. TV in the day is usually a way of me getting a bit of time to myself....for good or ill!

oh Maud, I have just watched the Shiny Red Shoes. Thank you. I am now later but happier...

Fortunately, Oxeye, the sit-in and howling protest stage is over now, but The Girl's forensic ability to spot the slightest flaw in my argument and construct a counter-argument of her own makes me think (a) I too should have gone for the benign dictatorship approach (b) a promising future beckons at the Bar.

What I found useful when she was about five - although I got the book a bit too late - was the How To Talk so Kids Will Listen etc approach of not getting stuck into the arguments about why I wanted her to do something, but just to say breezily "yes it would be lovely if we could spend another hour in bed but that would make us late for visiting granny". I think the book (which I confess I never read properly as I got what I needed from the first chapter) was onto something when it said the reason pre-schoolers throw a wobbly is often because they think their views have been dismissed, so if you agree that it's a marvellous idea but one that, sadly, you are unable to implement, they are mollified.

When Small Bean was younger I would watch tv with him. Even now we often snuggle up on the sofa together to watch something when we get home in the evening but equally he will watch some tv on his own while I get jobs done, run the bath or make dinner.

Oxeye - you are absolutely spot on with the democracy/dictatorship thing. When I ask Small Bean to go upstairs to bed and I get a debate starting with "I have a very clever idea, how about we just...." I wish I'd gone with the blind obedience option!!!

ah Bean - yes I have had that conversation too - and the "yes, alright mummy, that's quite a good plan, but mine is better" and the "But now you are going to make me really really angry and you know that that will make us both upset and not help matters and its just because I am tired and have been a little under the weather....::big baby eyed face:: - heck that child knows my buttons!

Maud - great book, yes, I have it and have read it and gained from it but (picking a random example) I don't find it helps in the "don't push the padlock back on and shut it.....we haven't got the keys.... ::slam::" moments...

No, quite, Oxeye. As I said, I only read one chapter. I think the difficulty in scenarios like that (which sounds painfully familiar) is that the idea that children should occasionally simply [usual disclaimer: in appropriate situations where it is necessary for their safety and well-being blah blah blah] be obedient and that disobedience is therefore a Bad Thing has gone out of fashion.

::old gimmer emoticon::

I'm a bit of a benign dictatorship I think. I will cheerfully leave Boys dinner in the kitchen until he has laid the table even if I have to take my own cutlery through with my own dinner and start with out him. He HAS to pull his weight at home , we work as a team, or the person who refuses to work suffers.

::UNis admits however that daddy is sucker and can still be persuaded to put boys socks on for him::

Read little red hen this weekend , boy enjoyed it greatly, and thought hen was quite right not to share her bread.

Re TV- I watched with boy or at least in same room when he was TS's age but as he got older ( 3ish on ) I started to leave him alone with programs that we had watched together and I considered "safe", this did back fire occasionally, he found an episode of Charlie and lola scary and refused to watch that again for some time, ditto everythings rosie ( age 4). Just recently I have checked out and watched on my own blue peter and live n deadly before trying them WITH boy, after which he decided he wanted to watch LnD on his own.

As their speech gets clearer this kind of conversation about what they are wiling to watch gets easier, honest.

I had that book (and one about teaching along the same lines) in my hand this week. I must admit that I sympathize with Toddler "Yes, TS, I KNOW you want to do xyz but we're doing abc instead." Depending on the situation and my mood I explain why as we're doing my wishes and not his. In everyday life I do tell him what we're going to do and why and talk about it as we're doing it. I often get funny looks when we're out-and-about but he's much more compliant when I tell him what and how and why. Then again, I will also let him touch things on a shelf (ie, investigate a toy) but he knows when I say something like "it's time to go, say goodbye to the toy" he puts it back and doesn't cry about it. Long may that continue!

I don't think TS has a cold after all no cold symptoms today but he's been running a low-grade temp and has been very clingy today. We've been plying him with juice and water and fruit and he kept going back to his cheese sandwich all afternoon (late lunch so left it available for him). He's been in bed for half-an-hour now after a last juice, some calpol, a cool bath and three readings of "'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving."

Another tooth Scout I wonder? Hope the travelling goes OK.

UniS - MC has only just moved over to Cbbc - there were too many 'dramas' which he really didn't get on Cbbc until very recently. Not that he watches them that regularly - if we had some sort of record option I think he'd choose to watch the Deadly programmes and Roar and Junior bake off - and perhaps the thing that took the children through the singing for Children in Need.

Chugginton made my teeth itch. As did a number of hte other options.

If you ever get a chance to watch mio and mao (something like that) its magical - plasticine cats.

I am quite often in the same room as mc when he's watching TV, but usually not watching ifyswim. Films - unless a well watched favourite - are often snuggle up on the sofa occasions just in case there's a frightening bit.

Concert ended rather suddenly on Sun when the conductor collapsed - not a good end, trying to find out how he is - I hope it was just stress, exercise and the heat as it was VERY hot in the hall.