Tea room the 5th - welcome to the yurt

[UniS]

Welcome to the tea room. A warm welcome to everyone, whether you have one child, none, or ten. This is a tea-and-muffin or booze-and-sofasorcanapees sanctuary for all. But certain standards of behaviour continue to apply - anyone engaging in fisticuffs will be ejected by George Clooney, ably assisted by Mellors the Gardener.

You have found us- did you like teh slide/ bridge over teh HaHa. Teh priest hole is still available, its just over there.

Mellors and I have erected the yurt, strewn rugs around and good a good fire going in the wood burner. The place is feeling toasty and warm with not a draft to be felt.The kettle is now singing away on the hob. selection of teas for all taste on the shelf along with the hand made by potters mugs. Mellors very ably fitted teh yurt window with a window sill onto which can be placed a selection of pot plants and george.

Can someone sort out RP ( who I think came over with the sofa) and plump up the hay pile for donk.

A Previous incarnation of Tea room may be found here

My sil (Mexican) recipe for getting grumpy and cold-ridden child to sleep:

Atole (its a milky drink made with maize flour, like custard. I think Horlicks or HC would do)

Hot bath with a few drops of medical alcohol added (I have no idea; she says "to stop the water doing any harm")

Vicks rub on chest and feet (again no idea why the feet)Pjs with socks on too.

Big kiss.

For Mum: lime juice/sugar plus tipple of choice.

Final idea:
Is drinking through a straw easier/more fun for your WS?

Seems to me that GP is a waste of space.

Sports drink through a straw for novelty value? An isotonic one with sugar and salt to replace lost fluids.

Good evening, ladies. I have had a wonderful afternoon. Mellors has been coaching me in essential DIY skills - I can now hammer a nail in straight and am skilled in the ways of the glue gun. He is such a handy man.

Racing - That does sound tough. I wish I could suggest something which you haven't already tried. Have another ((hug)). Oh, how do you feel about fizzy drinks? I know they are v v deleterious for the teeth, but would the offer of a lemonade treat encourage WS to drink?

Now, has everyone had enough tea? It's a little early, but I was thinking I might have a bijou drinkette.

True, she loves straws. Maybe the coughing is giving her a sore throat. The calpol may help soon. Will try Vicks on the feet. I am at present trying to persuade a bottle of HC down her. she thinks it's very funny to put it in her mouth and pretend to drink then demand more popcorn. The fact that anything is funny means calpol is kicking in.

What is a Mexican MIL like? Bit of a silly question, but I mean is the culture more get involved in everyone else's life/ big family orientated?

DH is cooking supper!

Keep x posting. GP was all in favour of coca cola as a drink for dehydrated littlies. Diluted with water a bit, she said. WS has demanded it ever since, except today (of course).

Must read a back and find out what is going on; the little bits I have seen are intriguing.

You see, I'm so out of touch that I don't even know if the Babies are still Baked. (Just easier to type than Teeny Weeny Mohawk Baby)

Nice bookshelf, MadBad. Although, from the noises eminating from the shed, I think you may be in possession of a Blue Peter style make (eg. showing "the one you made earlier"!! )

Racing The recipe is from sis-in-law; but yes, generally families are very very close. We are some what strange here as we live some couple of hundred miles away from in-laws. Obviously my folks are even further away.

Weekends tend to be dominated by family orientated events. Sunday being the day for all to get together and bitch about discuss other family members. All the advice you could ever need about anything, plus some more.

Ditto childcare; which means there are zero mums-and-tots style groups or new mums groups. All is en famille.

Can see advatages and disadvatages to that. AP shares our house in a more S European manner and does all the child care, which saves a huge amount of money . But mum-and-toddler groups are great for making new friends with similar children. (Then you can both leave together to get away from the 90% of mums you have nothing in common with.)

Yes, that is a very typical arrangement here too. I have lost count of the number of students I have had who've got married and had children while they are studying thanks to DM or DMIL, or even SIL. Good on the one hand -it doesn't interrupt their studies- bad on the other -they still don't take responsability for their lives and are still immature at 25 when they graduate.

But, as another SIL of mine (I have 7, my DH is one of 8), who lives in Acapulco in the home of MIL, has discovered, this means you are not the one making decisions. She works as a teacher, I might add, and isn't a student. She is forever complaining that she can't bring her DD up how she wants as MIL always overrules her.

Luckily, my AP is very good about this, although I did worry before WS was born. If anything, I wish she wouldn't check every thing with me sometimes.

I suppose if it is the cultural norm to be immature at 25, then it's fine. They'll grow up later when they are the MILs. Maybe?

Someone I work with has over 50 first cousins! So I've heard a bit about extended families.... Just imagine Christmas dinner....

Ds came home today asking if he could have rollerskates - I have absolutely no idea where he got that idea from. I said that I wouldn't promise when he could have them, but it might be something he might like to ask Father CHristmas for next Christmas. Ds got home and demanded help doing a card for Father Christmas to ask for some - it would have said 'Dear Santa, please give me some roller skates.' Santa might have been lucky and got a 'love from MJ' at the end, but I'm not sure!

RS, hope WS is feeling a bit better now. There were times when I felt awful - timing the doses of calpol, calprofen and tixilix or equivalent depending upon what sort of cough/cold. Baby benylin does seem to help them to sleep rather well

There were also times when MJ had a heavy cold/cough when I moved into the spare room with him so that I could co-sleep - much easier to sort out coughing fit without proper waking and then needing to be got back to sleep that way. Not sure that the neighbours appreciated sudden presence of snotty ds and me in the room next door (we're normally all on the non-attached side on purpose) but then they don't have to put up with much most of the time.

Great bookcase MB - but haven't I seen something looking mysteriously similar to that in the back of the shed?

MT: My DH has at least 200 first cousins (his Dad is one of 11 and his mum one of 13).

When we got married in DH's village, it was close family only. There were around 500 guests.

Contrast: my close family= 1 sister, mum and Dad, 7 cousins and two aunts and uncles plus gps. The difference in the Mexican wedding photos and the UK ones are more than obvious!!

There's me with my mother having two brothers (one with no children, other two sons) and my father with a sister (3 daughters) Although with the 3 being in America we rarely saw them. Particularly more recently as they've only fairly recently managed to extract themselves from a cult...

Sounds nasty. What kind of cult was that?

Evening all!
DS in the throws of D&V for the first time at the Donkey Sanctuary...
I have finally got everything cleaned up, and DS has fallen asleep at last.

Carrots anyone? Or home made chocolate shortbread?

As this is a magic Yurt, I'm hoping that D&V is non-infectious here.

Sorry that you're suffering too Donk - I think that something stronger than bolly is required tonight to stave off D&V from the Donkey household, and heavy colds and coughs from the Snake household... What do you fancy?

Cat - not sure, just know that there was no contact with the 'outisde' world and it took all their income.... However, all three are out now which is good.

Good night - the medicinal brandy is locked in the cupboard by the sink to stop the N-LNMBs from getting at it. I'm afraid it's only half full!

My comfort re-reads : Anne McCaffery PERN books, Monica Edwards Romney Marsh or Punchbowl books. Terry Pratcheet Disc world books. I am a voracious reader ( tho its never rubbed off on my spelling) and will happily have 3 novels on teh go at a time. I like short novels and childrens novels coz I can read teh whole thing in one evening.Also read a lot of non fiction as library has lots of that on all manner of maybe interesting subjects. Rather partial to a biography or a sociology book or history or child development or education or ,or, or. I missed my reading time when boy stopped breast feeding. Now I'm getting some back as he will play on his own while I read and occasionally say things like- where is your boat going? Would you like a blanket? Good parking.

Pratchets disc world books I get more of teh puns second and third time of reading. 1st read is for the story, 2nd for the puns, 3rd for cultural references.
RS- our secret weapon to get boy to drink is banana milk and a straw. He also partial to cold soup when he has a sore throat.Yogart is good one tho, good luck, hope something works.

ohh donk, shortbread , yes please. Something to sop up all teh cola I've been drinking today. Discovered that Red Bull have put a free product placement fridge in at one of my customers for a while.. cue much helping of self by staff to fizzy pop.

I think the NNMB are rather sweet when they go tree climbing, their pyramid approach to the first branch is certainly inventive. They have all swarmed back down now and last I saw of them they were asleep in their nest of straws up in teh rafters, I can hear the teeny tiny snores and snuffles if I listen hard. Perhaps tomorrow I will try and get them to go swimming to clean off some of the green stains on their knees.

What is it with these Marie Curie "pots of care" boy has been sent home form nursery with one, how on earth is one supposed to "sponsor" a child to care for a daffodil?? money for each day its not dead? BUT its me who will be watering it as boy would drown it with enthusiasm.

UniS - Pots of Care? Never heard of them. THe only pots ds did at nursery were cress.. which he ate with great gusto! Please remind me of what address I should be emailing - might even manage this evening, and will mean I won't have to go back through the thread too much.

I can also hear snoring - haven't worked out whether its the nmbs up in the rafters in their curly straw nests or mistledog who, now she has had her evening chew, is sufficiently relaxed enough to be sprawled over the edge of her basked partially onto the hall floor. It doesn't look comfortable, but she's so often in that position it can't be too bad.

Oh, and I like the Pern books too - I read some of them from the library then managed to borrow some from a friend and get them all in order which was slightly better!

So do I like the Pern books. Long time since I read Monica Edwards Punchbowl books. Quite a long time since I read anything, really.

WS asleep with Vicks on her feet and half a bottle of milk inside. Worked out that dh has been poisonous all evening because he is upset WS won't go anywhere near him while she is feeling ill. Feel bad about moaning about him, but couldn't complain to anyone who knows him ...

Racing - Have I missed something? Is your dh at home all day? That must add to the tension, I imagine, while WS is ill.

We have a pot of care (actually an empty pot as I neglected to plant the bulb ). I agree that a sponsored bulb is a tricky concept to get one's head around!

Bolly, anyone?

Mistle
re vouchers and sandals
sarah at unicyclist dot com

night all, I'm off to join teh snoreing ones- tho NOT in a curly straw nest.

RS its perfectly reasonable to complain about dh's when they are feeling under the weather. I mean, a slight cold means that they are totally incapable of doing anything helpful for the next 3 days at a minimum....

Hello all!
Racing lovely to see you again, though sorry you have been so stressed.

My top rehydration tips:
(1) very weak warm camomile tea - DaisyBoy loves drinking tea like mummy and daddy - by weak I put about 1 " of boiling water in bottom of cup with a teabag for about 2 minutes then top up with warm water.

Add a spoonful of Manuka honey - it is great for colds and coughs. You can also add a little squeeze of lemon for medicinal purposes

DB likes warm and sweet drinks when poorly

Also, what about dioralyte or gatorade sports drinks or lucozade that all have restorative sugars and salts

and inventive ways of drinking - we use anything - a special china mug, a sports bottle that squirts, all manner of straws etc - for us DB doesn't like to drink much and we spend much time coaxing liquid because of his constipation - so its ongoing not just illness
Another top tip is to juice things - blend banana milkshakes or hot chocolate (teeny bit of chocolate in warm milk) and then really just give a sip every 2-3 seconds! only a sip at a time but it makes the difference!!!

Anything else? What about a sling - even a scarf tied round Wriggles bottom will help to hold her and give you an arm and a bit of hip and back rest. I still have a long wrap I used all the time when DB was little and he likes it when he's poorly

And DH? Tell him to go out and walk the dog. They will both feel better. The dog is whining because she is picking up on the anxiety and the illness and the general tension.

DH should know that OF COURSE WS wants her Mummy. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. It means that you have a hot, clinging, fractious, tired and weepy child on your neck for 25 hours a day, so it's not all a bed of roses!

Are you catching up on the thread? I think the main news is your Guineas are no longer virgins

I'm not sure about MadBad!!! He shelf is a work of art though, isn't it!

Other catch up news? We might or might not have eaten one of our pigs this morning when we all had bacon sarnies!

They staged a march & protest, but I didn't manage to count their numbers.