Welcome to the Seventh Heaven Tea Room (BYOB. Biscuits, crisps and cake provided)

[Catitainahatita]

Hello and welcome to the seventh incarnation of the tearoom.

If you have found us by chance and/or curiousity you must know that the tearoom is a virtual safe haven for all those seeking a friendly word, a good cuppa and plenty to snack on. By virtue of its magic nature, no food can cause any physical damage, so chocolate, alcohol, transfat and all such can be consumed guilt- (and magically calorie-) free.

We have a wide range of soft-furnishing to relax on; a lovely garden with a swing and a ha ha; a variety of animals; a spa and (for some unknown reason) an apidistra.

Everyone is welcome, if you have one child, ten or none at all. We are a tolerant and fisticuffs-free zone. Instead we employ our energies swooning at Mellors the Gardner cum handiman thinking a silly things to get up to.

Please come in and say hello. You never know, you may end up joining us ...

JM 6 months! You make it sound so little time... and so much to do before then.

The other biscuits are also pretty good, I must say. Although the nostalgia-value on the MacVities really makes them beyond compare.

Mistle Poor MJ. I had bad carsickness as a child, but grew out of the worst of it. Stock favourites to ward of sickness in our family was singing along to the radio, sucking on mint imperials, and sitting in the front seat (obviously this was pre car seat days). Of all the options the sitting in the front was always the best. Perhaps when MJ is bigger he can travel there?

Wow! This is lovely. Thank you Catita for the great signpost and welcoming message. Great news about the scan, too.

I am thanking my lucky stars that MadBadBaby's feet can happily be accommodated in Clarks shoes (I see from other MN threads that Clarks seem to be considered a bit naff, but there). There was a thread a couple of days ago which pointed out that this concern with fitting shoes is a British thing - that in France (certainly in our experience) the USA and elsewhere you might find a foot measure somewhere in the back of the shop if you're lucky, but otherwise you just try on a few pairs until you find some that seem OK. To the best of my knowledge, the French are not all martyrs to bunions and hammer toes, but I do still cling to the notion that I have to buy MBB's shoes from proper shoe shops and have them measured and fitted first. She is desperate for a pair of crocs. Perhaps for the beach in a funky colour, although I prefer those neoprene shoes which can be worn for rock-pooling.

Is the sun over the yardarm yet?

Although I agree with you - Crocs are not proper shoes and certainly not for school. But this firmly places me among the ranks of old fogies: the weather has been so gorgeous and I've been on lots of walks, and as happens every year, the warmer it gets, the fewer clothes teenage girls seem to wear. I walked behind a throng of them on Monday who were all undressed in capris, teeny-tiny tank tops with bra straps (and boobs, and muffin-top, and bellies) hanging out everywhere, and flip-flops (thong sandals). I wanted to ask them if they'd been to the beach but clearly they'd just come from school.

I am an old fuddy-duddy and proud of it. I have been amazed today that, although it has admittedly been a warm spring day, so many people have been dressed as if for Ibiza in August. As you say, Jacksmama, skimpy tops and flip-flops all over the place. And some of these bimbos fashionable young women must have been going to work.

Hey up, ladies. Shall we celebrate our arrival in the seventh heaven tea room?

In the interests of the warmer weather, I have shed my opaques (this is home office, I was sporting nude fishnets at the conference), and may well break out the sandals at the weekend. But no strappy tops or flip flops.

DH has appaling feet - the chiropodist thinks it is because he has very wide and high feet and didn't have properly fitted shoes

Yes PLEASE Mellors!!!!

Catita - theory about sitting in the front is fine in principal - but in practise it would just mean that I would be in the back getting car sick I have even managed to make myself car sick whilst driving!! which I believe is quite difficult to do! Dh also gets travel sickness - not quite as bad as me generally - but equally, he's not a good back-seat passenger either...

This looks very fine!

Where is the best place for my hay pile? It needs to be out of the way so that no one treads on my tail!

Wow, how lovely to find you!

Did you say sun over yardarm? For sure!

Thumb the 2WW is a two week wait - time between shag baby making and damn period finding out whether you are expecting

Laugh at dates, Catita - my scans I kept being given new dates despite saying "I KNOW the moment of conception, I watched it in a test tube but glad all well

Mistle sorry re sickness. I was dreadful as a child, came back with a vengeance when pregnant and remains with me. Sea bands make me faint (and I am not a fainty type)

Crocs agree with beach principle although I am quite taken with those ones that are like super comfy flip flops... me I am a boots in winter and birkenstock in summer kind of girl...

photos are great, you can't do "mumsnetmates" it is a misnomer

feeling very spring like again, we are all jolly and sunny and have our shorts out and DaisyBoy has had a celebratory hair cut and DH has had a celebratory shave - beard off!!!

how bout over there in front of the indian screen but out of the draft.
Do try and keep your tail un troden on, I'd hate for you to lose it and someone to gain a bellpull.

Daisy - I have had exactly the same conversation about conception dates.

Doctor: When was MadBadFoetus conceived?
MadBad: On [this] date
Doctor: (Patronising) Are you sure? You ladies can sometimes get a bit confused, can't you?
MadBad: Quite sure. I was watching it all on the big screen.
Doctor: (Checks notes). Ah, yes.

It's good to see the lovely George again. Has anyone brought Paul and Wesley?

Thank you, Mellors. For everything.

Something very strange has happened - for the second night Wriggle is sleeping on her own!!!! Even if only for an hour or so, it is great. (Although sadly means that I actually have to do things in the evening.)

There is lots to do because our headteacher has slaughtered a goat, consulted the entrails, thrown seaweed at the wall, pondered the way the swallows are flying and worked out that OfSTED should be with us in 3 to 4 weeks. And I have so many things which are not ready. This obviously explains why I am here in the tea room with a glass of rose, chatting to you.

Re crocs - I have to admit, in spite of my great age, to being a fan of crocs. I wear mine a lot, even out of the house. Admittedly, I do live in Darkest Dorset, not in a chic suburb of Paris, but even so.

When it comes to Wriggle, I am thrilled if she will consent to wear cheapo imitation plastic crocs, since that for her is the height of sophisticated wear. She spends her life in wellington boots. Pink wellington boots. Muddy pink wellington boots.

Today I decided to really go for it (DH is away and so will not hear the sobbing) and force her to wear her leather sandals, bought at no small expense. She wailed, 'No like' and ripped them off. I put them on her and bundled her in the car for her walk. She took them off again, I put them on again. She threw them out of the push chair, she put them on her hands, she cried and finally did the walk all along the road in bare feet - at least a mile.

I even painted her toenails and showed her how pretty they were in sandals and how totally invisible they were in her wellies. To no avail. Any ideas?

And I had the same issues with dates. Midwives knew far better than I and changed my due date. Then Wriggle had the last laugh by changing it by over 8 weeks.

Let her wear wellies

I have succumbed to little cloth sandals with rockets on, so what do I know? They dry quickly and DaisyBoy loves them....

AH yes, the magic baby changing dates. DaisyBoy did that too.....

By the way does Wriggle normally only sleep with you?

When DS was born (and for months afterwards) I was asked whether I was really sure about my dates - I mean, obviously 8 scans (from 6 weeks onwards), an ERPC 4 weeks prior to DS's conception, and my knowledge of when I conceived could mean nothing in comparison to his birthweight (35 weeks, 6lb5oz)

No idea on the shoes front RS. Maybe take her to choose some herself ?

MadBad titter at your conversation with the Doctor. I wish I was that cool. Never managed it. something to do with "knickers down, coping mechanism/ wit/ brain off..."

Trust Wriggle!!!!

RS - I found the whole wellies story deeply interesting....

Milk's current catchphrases are....

"NO - MILK DO IT" (followed by trying to do something she obviously is too small/too inexperienced in life to complete)

"THIS IS NICE" (followed by pointing at something completely rubbish)

"THAT IS NOT NICE" (followed by pointing at something rather lovely)

Does this attitude to life sound familiar????

Ah yes, CMOT you can know nothing. You are a pregnant woman with no knickers on. I am a mighty doctor/ midwife with scales. You are wrong

Talking about scan dates....

Catita and JM - how long is a pregnancy in your countries?

In England 40 weeks
In France it is 41 weeks!!!!

TRUE

tea it sounds like you have a toddler!!!

By they way, I am loving the Seventh Heaven tea room, I love the fairy lights round the fireplace and the little twinkly star lights in the rafters

And look, there are the NMBs, I wondered when they would be coming over. They are wearing lovely dark blue velvet pantaloons and look! Teeny tiny golden crocs and teeny tiny shiny gold waistcoats!

Oh yes, the "MW's and MD's know everything better" attitude... let's see, where did that get me?

Me (in the throes of labour with Jackbaby): "This is not going well, he's clearly stuck and I'm not progressing and I think you should call a consult for a section"
MW: "We're not at that point yet"

Post-forceps delivery in which I haemorrhaged severely suffered a bit, I hear a consult saying, "You waited too long, this lady needed a section hours earlier".

I have since learned that professionals (which occasionally includes me ) NEVER know better than a pregnant woman, and not to take no for an answer. In the past year I have caused many a set of medical eyebrows to disappear into the corresponding medical hairline, and Do Not Care One Bit.

More rose anyone?

yes, rose lovely!

Spotted Dick could be a teenage boy's bits but in fact is a steamed suet pudding with raisins in. Very sort of Enid Blyton and boarding school but strangely delicious with custard.....

Last summer I went to get ds some summer shoes. He is a 'real' boy - so I still wanted his toes to be covered (for when he kicks things, jams his feet inbetween stones when scrambling up rockfaces and trees, and on his bicycle, when he has a tendency to drag his feet, upside down, to slow down...) - some great holey shoes were put on which he decided that he hated. By calling them 'mountain climbing shoes' he suddenly decided that he loved them! A lot of it is down to description for him. The replacement version for the autumn were 'cool shoes' - the ones after were 'cool blue shoes'

MJ also hadn't read the books about size - he was only a week early, but he was 10lbs 5oz. Goodness knows how big he would have been if he'd been on-time or even late! Its also not surprising that I measured over 'normal' coprehnsively, and every scan they added at least a day or two... Oh, and I was spot on with relevant dates - as I had the date to discuss which day to start IVF THAT VERY MONTH and we'd given up positively trying as there didn't seem to be any point so we could easily identify the specific date !!!

Spotted dick... Roly poly... suffolk pond...