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

Am probably too late to speak to any of you - but have posted a new pic on my profile of my very own NMB!

TW - lovely picture! Where's the battle paint and tomahawk though?

We have survived a hellish weekend. MJ was really tired - but refused to have a nap either day - so couldn't concentrate on anything, couldn't remember what he'd been told for more than 2mins, couldn't stay quiet, kept demanding food (loudly) and generally was a real * * * *.

Left him in tears this morning as I was talking to his teacher - and he decided to mess up the bricks that his two friends had been playing with - I asked him to put them back - no reaction - ended up with the teacher saying leave him to me.

I'm not sure that he will be having a birthday party the way he has been behaving.

Thanks MT - of course, his tomahawk is not allowed in the bath in case it gets rusty, and he was between-coats of warpaint (mostly of the chocolate coloured variety!)

Sorry to hear you are having a hard time with MJ - that's no fun.

I am a bit sad that NMBDS didn't do so well last night - I really thought the grobag had cracked it! - but no. He didn't have his afternoon nap, probably the problem, so went to bed at 7:50pm. Slept half an hour and woke wailing (this is normal if he goes to bed before 8:30pm so wasn't too bothered by that bit) - but then he woke again at 10:30pm and again at 00:45 - and he wouldn't go back to sleep in his cot the last time. So after a few tries, with him getting more and more wound up I thought "sod it" and took him in with me - where he stayed awake and wriggling (but at least not screaming) for at least half an hour. He woke up quite early (for him) as well - 7am - no chance of getting him back to snooze.

TW - we found that naps were incredibly important to ds - he slept so much better at night if he'd had one. But then, there were always days when he just wouldn't go down or something upset his routine. Lets hope this is a blip and things will improve!

(BTW, saw some grobags in TKMax at the weekend at 1/2 price)

I'm hoping so - no prob with his morning nap today, anyway - he nearly fell asleep before we'd even left Tumble tots!

yes, you are right about the naps - DS never used to nap properly during the day until he was about 6mo - and then as soon as he started proper naps, his night sleeps improved enormously. Now I just have to deal with his late bedtime (routinely 9-9:30pm ) without having a fiasco like last night again.

Ta for TKMAxx tip - will see if I can get into our nearest and have a look.

Hello all!

Thumb sorry that initial Grobag Glory didn't work, but I think it might be worth hanging on in there...naps are also critical

Mistle sorry that MJ is being trying how is DH and job hunting going?

Zazen lovely to see you! Good chips - I am going to fry them for lunch!!!

MadBad shall I pass you some linament for your legs, all that ballet and fame is going to make you a bit ummm creaky I fear? I am sorry to miss the Fame night though....I always had a soft spot for LeRoy but High Fidelity was the definite low spot

Old People - Racing - it's probably too late but there is an organisation of solicitors who have signed up to being partiucalry nice to old people - naturally specialist in wills and trusts and stuff but also in taking time, not expecting text/ email responses etc etc also Help the Aged have a special department for all things old as do a government department at the DoH - especially helpful for older people... I will try and look it up

Donk - glad your Dad is in a better place

JM don't worry about catching up, just plough in!!! So sorry about your friend. Ithink you need the Bunny and Pancake today...

Thumb hope your Dad is doing ok too

UniS and CMOT and Thumb love the photos!

We're all fine. Bit busy, lovely weekend, family birthdays, lots of cake and cousins!

Amber hope you had a lovely weekend away

did you see the 4WDs doing it properly in the Okavango swamp on tele yesterday? They almost floated through - made people having them to drive to school look really daft!

Dh still no luck with job hunting. I've told him to drop his £ if its where we live - and just get any job and then move to the right one as soon as it comes up. At least we'd be starting from a more secure position that way.

Cup of tea anyone? Dh cooked some yummy flapjacks with crystalised ginger in - ds told me to 'tell daddy not to put ginger in them again' but dh and I like them!

MT, that's a cunning plan to ensure DS doesn't snaffle too many of the flapjacks, isnt' it?!
hope your DH gets a job soon though - as you say, better to take anything to start with and then look for a better option whilst actually earning money!

Thanks daisy - I did smile when DS's hair did that in the bath, thought instantly of this thread!

What a wonderful day! Just peeped out into th tea room garden and it is just as beautiful there - sky larks singing, little birds twittering, sun shining ....

Thank you Daisy for your tip - if you could find the name of that group it would be great.

Sorry to hear Mistlechick is playing up - they usually behave so much better for teachers than mums and teachers are used to that, so don't feel embarrassed. I can quell a class of 32 8-years olds just be folding my arms (and having the nerve to wait what feels like a hour) but Wriggle just filters me out.

Hope all dads are feeling better now. Don't know how I would cope in Donk's situation; glad to hear that DonkDad is finding a way to do so.

Thumb - I have a horrible feeling that some babies/children sleep and some don't. (I have one that doesn't.) I'm not saying this to discourage you; just don't feel it's your fault or something you are doing wrong. People were always saying, "Well, of course she doesn't sleep through if you ...(fill in whatever you are doing now)." Then I would try what they said and she still didn't sleep. I found that life became much easier when I decided to work with her and find ways to live with the broken nights. I am not, of course, saying that you will have to do this.

Planning an Equinox get-together with friends, serving nettle lasagne with tomato and wild garlic salad. It was the most spring-y thing I could think of, using very little work and energy. (See above) Anyone got any other ideas? Maybe there should be a tearoom equinox celebration?

RS - thank you, I know what you mean. I mostly still do take the easy option but am concerned I am setting myself up for longer term pain - literally, as having DS in with me means I usually end up with backache

love the sound of your equinox party - how about some sorbets for dark and light? one equal scoop each of e.g. blackcurrant and lemon, to signify the Equinox? Nettle lasgne sounds very interesting...

It's beautiful here too

DS and I went to my parents for the weekend. It is somewhat trying as a) my father surfaces super early and then returns to bed for tea, biscuits and Farming Today at 6am. DS likes this and insists I join in the manna from heaven that is biscuits in bed.
b) Their house is full of stuff c)They keep a large range of fruit on the side in the sitting room d) Neither parent can be left in charge of DS for more than 30s

Highlights from DS's pov
The pond full of frogs. Very educational ahem
The farmers market. Lots of free samples
Feeding the ducks and swans on the river
getting finger bitten by the swan (not hard)
Having a bath (at his great insistence) with Grandma

Highlight from my POV
Amazing Jack Daniels and pecan gluten free cake from farmers market
Watching the hunky rowers on the river

RS - if it helps - the first time ds went for a nap on his own was when he was 10mo - before then, if I was around he had to be on me to go to sleep - and if he was put down, ever so carefully, when asleep he would immediately wake up and scream blue murder.

When he was a baby he came to bed at the same time as us - we didn't even try to settle him earlier - it was bad enough doing it once! (scrap that, it was bad enough doing it the 2 / 3/ 4 times that he woke each night.

We've only just managed to swing MJ around from a sprightly 5.30am wake up call!!!!

He didn't sleep through on a 'normal' basis until he was over 1 - I was back at work and being woken up every night.

But now he's normally quite good - we're trying to be going upstairs by 6.30 and normally he is going to sleep (on his own) by 7.30 at the absolute latest (unless MiL is doing him, then its 8pm and he is cranky for the following day)

Morning all,

I'd go a cup of tea and some flapjack, if there is still some left Mistle? Sorry to hear that the grobag hasn't magically solved your problems. Fingers crossed for a good night tonight.

CMOT It sounds like your DS had a good time with your parents. You not so much, but its ever the way...

Thumb Very cool photos by the way. Very lovely NMB indeed. He looks a lot less devious than the yurt's own brand. Having seen your profile, I have a question. What's up with aspartame in general? I ask this as a diabetic who relies on such stuff for sweet flavour; although I di prefer Splenda (or is that just as bad?) Aagh.... I may have to live a life devoid of all sweetness at this rate [sobbing emoticon]

Nice to see you Daisy haven't seen you in a while. Hope all is well.

Racing How's Wiggle's cough? Is it any better? Have you tried hot water and honey as drink to soothe her throat, or doesn't she like it?

DHs

I am meant to be working. Dh is in charge of MJ and getting supper ready. MJ wants to read his library book (about pants) to DH. Dh wants to do yorkshire puddings. MJ wants to help. Next thing I know is there is a huge scream of 'MJ' from Dh. I go in - there is a little bit of batter on the floor - dh has his head in his hands and is acting as though its the end of the world - MJ has flour on his school jumper (it needed washing anyway) and is about to burst into tears. I had to take over, say its OK MJ, come and help me mix... So we mixed then mopped up (milk off forehead and hair, tears off cheeks) and he is happy again. Quite why it needed such a reaction from dh I don't know...

Anyway, sorry about that!

Hello Catita - how are you doing? Feeling any better?

Daisy, yes, really lovely weekend away. Very old village, thatched cottage, good pub serving good food (though very, very noisy so we found a quieter one on days 2 and 3), and lots of churches to look at.

Haven't seen anything about the Landrovers in the mud, but mine spends much of her life axle-deep in the stuff anyway thanks to horse and rugby (not often combined, I hasten to mention). I remember one event with son where they'd closed off the entranceway because it was a 25 degree slope of thick ploughed mud. Apparently most cars can't get through that sort of thing. We did. No problem. Sometimes I have to take a spanner to parts of her engine to encourage her but generally we get along just fine.

Cup of tea whilst I catch up with the thread?

Hello everybody! It's good to hear everyone's news.

I'll have to say no to the tea, Amber, as I'm currently slurping sherry. I've had a lovely day - popped into the garden at 9am to do a little bit of weeding and was still there at 5.30pm. Unfortunately, the sun streaming through the windows does illuminate the layer of dust on every horizontal surface, but if I spend all my time in the garden I don't have to look at it. I'm grateful, Daisy, for the offer of the bottle of linament, but I've booked an intensive aromatherapy massage with Mellors in the shed so am sure that he will ease away all my aches and pains.

Mistle - As MadBadBaby says: Honestly, men these days! Is it choir practice tonight? A good sing may get the frustration out, perhaps. I thought of Cmot over the weekend, when I found this website. We seem to have neglected to put Paul Newman and Wesley Shipes on display since we moved to the yurt.

So, would anyone else like a sherry?

ooo, not for me thanks, though if there's a smidgeon of wine going, I'll have a wee drop.
Or a thimbleful of that linament if we're out of wine...

Catita - cough a little better today, thank you. She loves spoonsful of honey and then I try to put the warm drink afterwards. I hope Splenda is Ok becuase my diet would be very sad without it (or I would be the hippo that nature obviously intended me to be).

At school we have the pro- and anti aspartamene camps among parents and staff who get very cross indeed. One group demands organic organge squash for half time in netball, the other group refuses to allow their children to drink it and then deliberately hands out jelly babies. Great fun is had by all observers.

Off for an early, hopefully cough-reduced night, so bonne nuit all'

CMOT - your weekend (and your parents) sound perfect and what is wrong with having fruit on the sideboard. We have that!

(Other people's families are always easier to cope with than your own.)

Yes, I too am fond of a fruit bowl - bowls full of Haribo, on the other hand, I would object to - but I can see that with a child younger than MadBadBaby it might wreck mealtimes if they spend all day grazing on fruit.

Anway, I have some (ahem) grape juice here. Handily fermented and bottled my nos amis, les francais. Who else would like to achieve their five portions a day?

Bonne nuit, racingsnake!

As MadBad surmises, the trouble is that DS spends the whole time eating fruit. And then not eating my mothers lovingly (although, alas, these days of rather varying actual cookedness) prepared meals.

MadBad, would you like to come and sort my garden ? For some reason I have come back with some seed potatoes and strawberry plants as my lack of plants distresses my parents

Amber - you make me reminisce of my youth, and of the landy whose gear stick was a very large screwdriver for a time

Cmot - Have you seen Donk recently? She was hoping to speak to you about matters medical.

I am laughing at the notion of your mama's meals of variable cookedness. My own maternal parent also seems to be heading in that direction.

Hmm It all depends on what you mean by sorting out your garden. Over on gardening I'm quite liberal with advice and ideas but if there's heavy digging or chain saw action required, my technique now is to follow what a dear colleague used to call the GALMI Principle (Get A Little Man In, although actually he's (I guess) 6ft 1). But seed potatoes and strawberries sound very exciting.

Aspartame- I have issues with it, I really really dislike the aftertaste it gives to things... I KNOW not every one finds that to be a problem, so I guess not every one tastes it in the same way. but it is an ingredient I will try to avoid and can spot in things if I've not read the ingredients.
Boy doesn't seem to mind it. There is something they put in pre packed pasta and rice salads that I loathe as well...
I stick to full sugar and full fat versions if I can.

HI all. Tea please amber- I'll hit the harder stuff later. I'm at home as my friend cryed off going to cinema, and I'm not so keen I'll go alone.

Ah the aspartame and Splenda thing.
Aspartame = poison - read this lovely and edifying account of the history of aspartame from the Ecologist magazine. There are a lot of negative websites about the stuff, many written by less-than-literate people but some by bona fide doctor types. Personally I won't touch it - some of the safety research done on it involved using MSG as the "placebo" - it isn't a placebo as glutamate and aspartate trigger the same receptors in the brain, so MSG is not going to differ substantially in effect from aspartame. MSG is not an appropriate placebo.

Splenda - fascinating stuff - originally suggested that it was not absorbed at all by the gut so very little done in respect of how chlorinated sugar molecules would affect human biochemistry - sadly, Japanese research showed that up to 40% of the stuff IS absorbed (and still unclear as to how chlorinated sugar molecules react in the body although by now I expect more reasearch has been done.) Anyone denigrating Splenda runs the risk of being taken to court by Tate & Lyle, however, an amazingly powerful company who managed to get sugar removed from the 1972 report about causes of heart disease and obesity in the UK population, just leaving high fat, salt and cholesterol.
Actually the Sugar trade are incredibly powerful - up there with Oil and Pharma in terms of controlling economy and governments - they petitioned the US govt to get the WHO's funding stopped unless they changed their dietary recommendation for max sugar intake from 10% to 25%. A compromise was reached.

Catita - can you get your hands on Stevia in Mexico? A natural alternative to sugar that has no repercussions on diabetics (illegal to be sold in the UK, although it can be imported for personal use only)

I assume you are aware that it is also dangerous for you to intake too much fructose? Sugar alcohols (Polyols) such as sorbitol, mannitol etc. are a better way to go as they are very poorly absorbed by the gut (hence taking too much in can have seriously deleterious effects on bowel function!)

waves... hello all!