Tea Room the Fifteenth - The Viking Hall

[amberlight]

Here we are in the 15th instalment of the Tea Room for the One Child Family board. All are welcome, whether parents of a single splendid offspring or any other number.
We are this time in a Viking Long Hall tearoom, complete with optional helmets, roaring log fires (in case of chilly spring evenings), rugs aplenty, and all the usual mod cons of life as well.
Our Viking tea room contains Mellors the gardener/handyperson with a talent for relaxing massage (amongst a variety of other characters including Bishops, camels, bison, horses, guinea pigs, dogs, etc etc for reasons that would take too long to explain but you're welcome to read the other Tea Room threads and prepare to have your mind thoroughly boggled). Plenty of tea/coffee/cake/virtual bolly always on offer.
Join us, relax, chat, enjoy.

[Jacksmama]

I'd quite like some gin...

[amberlight]

DMC, I like your dd's thinking

CMOT, oh my re your ds's chin - stitches needed?

[MaryBS]

AandO, it happens, I've done it, just give him lots of love and he'll soon forget about it! I have been known to put MYSELF in timeout when I'm finding my two a bit much, because they have tried my patience just that bit too far and I'm scared I might snap.

Am not sure about having my coffee in a bison's horn, I am likely to put it down absentmindedly and it go everywhere as it doesn't stand up on its own .

We are supposed to be playing steam trains tomorrow at Bure Valley, I hope the weather stays fine for us...

[mistlethrush]

BTW, I took some segments of the aspidistra and repotted them - the old one was looking a bit raggedy - so we've got some nice new ones that are already looking better. Not quite sure what happened to the old one (JM ) but the new ones will soon be as good for hiding behind.

I got fed up with mistlechick's procrastination this morning. I ended up picking up his clothes and walking out and putting them in the car - then following with school and my bag - mistlechick, howling, got in car - I suggested that he should put his clothes on a bit so that he could do his buttons up on the way. I decided that it was the better thing to do rather than to get cross... and it really shows him that we do carry things through. He was fine by the time we got to school!

MrMT still hasn't arranged for my laptop to be collected or dropped off for mending....

I see that Mellors has sorted out some outdoor furniture in the very un-viking courtyard garden - anyone fancy a tea or coffee with a croissant sitting outside in the garden with me?

[amberlight]

Oh go on then - could do with a tea and croissant. Ooo look, these croissants are shaped like Viking helmets too!

[mistlethrush]

Have you seen the NMBs are going around with small croissants pushed onto their heads so that they've got good viking helmet horns - at least shape-wise?

[RacingSnake]

AandO, I think that has happened to a lot of us. Then you shock and upset yourself far more than them. He will get over it, and as some wise person has just said, it gives you the perfect opportunity to talk about why you mustn't hit people.

I was actually worse this morning. It is Friday, the day when she stays with AP when we are at work (other days have other arrangements) and they very often do cooking. At 7.30 Wriggle came down dressed in her apron ready, with her dolls in aprons, too, supplied by DH (cue 'awwww' from LongHut inhabitants) and I grabbed her from DH, told her she wasn't doing cooking and made her cry and DH get very angry with me. The thing is, he didn't know AP is ill and was planning watching CBeebies for the morning ( but it is an emergency) because I hadn't told him because then he gets cross because we haven't got an emergency arrangement, but I can't think of one ... And I grabbed her becuase I was getting late for work and he took so long finding dolls' aprons ... So I spoilt everyone's happy morning.

Early-morning restorative mead, anyone?

[oxeye]

I found this tucked away at the back of the caravan (JM?) but I see your new bits sprouting nicely Mistle

AanoO I so know that feeling. You can only do your best. O will also learn that we all have snapping points and that sometimes we fail in what we try to do (keep calm) and what we do next is what matters- apologise, move on, try not to do it again , still love unconditionally etc.

Racing - don't worry. I am sure they are fine. You were only trying to manage everyone including Wriggle xx

Mary glad cubs a bit better

oxeye grabs a croissant from the head of a passing nmb and surveys the long hall with satisfaction
xx

[MaryBS]

Argh

Daughter is feeling REALLY low about lack of friends. School has suggested she keep a diary - page 1 today - full of negative thoughts

[RacingSnake]

And now I have a speeding ticket! I am always being overtaken by speeding idiots. I don't even remember being in this place, although I am sure I was - it's on a route I do take.

Sorry about your daughter, Mary; how old is she?

[Jacksmama]

Awww, Racing, poo about the speeding ticket



Hey, look what I found! Drinking horns with stands attached so you can put your coffee down without spilling anything! Brilliant invention. They were just here next to the cappuccino machine...



Bless JB, he's's been sleeping longer these days... but perhaps that's because he's been going to sleep later. Not by my choice... but he's been extraordinarily hard to settle at night lately. Bleh.

AandO - we all have snapping points. I love JB more than anything in the world, and I occasionally find myself losing it with him and feel exactly how you do after. Would a (((HUG))) or a supportive pat help? Or some gin, or is it too early?

I need some gin myself... have to steel myself to go back to the bum doctor today. And convince him that while my, errr... problems may not look too bad, they are quite painful. Gah.

[MaryBS]

She is 10, RS. Thats tough about the speeding ticket, how much is it, if I can ask?

Eek JM, hope all goes well with the bum doctor . Am liking the drinking cups!

[Catitainahatita]

Ooh vikings.... so very exciting. This is perhaps not the perfect garb for 40 plus degrees, but here in the hall it seems just fine.

Much sympathy to AandO and Racing. I hope you day has got a bit better.

Mr. Hatita went to Tijuana yesterday. He'll be back Sunday. Meanwhile my two are suffering and snuffling through a very nasty virus. (Me too, but I've no time to dwell on that when they are both poorly. Both are asleep and dosed up on calpol. I hope this makes them a little less hard to deal with this afternoon.

[Scout19075]

[drivingmisscrazy]

more crying and protesting about move to new room here: she keeps pointing at her old room and shouting . No possibility of her moving back, so I guess we'll just have to ride it out... please someone reassure me that we'll get back to her nice easy 7 o/c bedtime one day - I liked that, and it meant I felt I had some semblance of a life. At the moment I just feel like all I do is lurch from one poorly executed domestic task to another whilst pretending to be a professional in between - and everything is suffering, except (perhaps) DD -

sorry moanarama - I'm sure there wasn't much time for moaning in the viking longhouse

might get to eat dinner, one day, followed by making curtains for ungrateful lovely daughter's new bedroom

[Donki]

(Look, I know that horse drawn vehicles aren't allowed on the motorway, but what is a donkey to do?)

Now where is my bucket?

Excuse me MT dear, please can you take that aspidistra out of my bucket? I know it looks a bit like a plant pot...

What a wonderful creation Amber!

Sorry to hear about the speeding ticket RS - how very aggravating for you.

DMC, repeat after me "This too shall pass" - and have a nice bucket of wine

[RacingSnake]

Poor Driving. Obviously she was far more aware of what she wants than you expected. The old room must somehow spell security and sleep and routine. I am totally useless at advice in this field, as Wriggle shares our bed. This means being got up most nights to do 'pipi' because she can't go without waking me, but ... she will sleep anywhere I am. I am sure that she will get used to it - have you tried asking in the 'sleep' thread for similar experiences?

Mary, I wondered how old your daughter was, because I was trying to imagine if she is a 3-year old where you could just invite children to your house for her, ot an agonising teenager. Why does she feel she has no friends? We are a very small school, and in some year groups have only 2 or 3 girls, which can be a problem.

Catita, isn't calpol marvellous?

I am absolutely OK with speeding tickets - it's just that I really am one of the slower, more careful drivers I know. Why can't they also catch the lunatics who overtake me on blind corners on wiggly country roads on the way to work in the mornings? It's only £60 and I'm trying to work out whether I could go on a reeduction course and therefore have no points on my licence. I don't know whether you can request a time that suits you - as a teacher I obviously can't do it on a working day, without having to pay the school for the price of my supply cover.

Scout, nice to see you back - don't try to understand, just dive in!

JM, put that aspidistra down!

[drivingmisscrazy]

racing - thanks. She's always been very visually orientated and I suppose she learned to sleep and self-settle in that room, and the new one is smaller etc. DP thinks she isn't scared, just cross and put out - we are going to have fun with her later, aren't we? Got her up, she did some steps (this isn't helping) and put her back and she seems to have gone off now, thank the lord.

even though she is on the cusp of walking we can't get any shoes for her because her feet are so tiny (a 2G or 2.5F, apparently ) - she'll just have to toddle around the longhouse in her bare feet then...

donki thanks for passing that bucket

[RacingSnake]

Driving - is there any reason why you particularly want her to have shoes? Especially as it is getting warmer now? Wriggle didn't wear shoes for a long time, and even now very often doesn't wear them. Bare feet is the best thing for her growing, developing feet.

[drivingmisscrazy]

racing true - i suppose she can just walk about in the garden and will stop if she stands on a stone, won't she? it's a good point, and they are so disgustingly exploitative of gullible suckers like me expensive and try to tell you that you need x and y and z, and then they only come in 592 shades of pink, and then they look at you like you're a pervert when you ask to look at the boys' shoes (brown, sensible, practical). Sorry, gone from moanathon to rantathon

[AandO]

Hi guys, thanks for the sympathy .

LittleO does not seem traumatised and appears to have forgotten there was any fighting at all. It was a crazy situation, he ended up stripping himself naked and screaming inside our car in the Spar carpark, refusing to go into the shop to buy food but also refusing to get into his car seat to go home. So I was trapped there with him for 2 hours!!! I forcefully redressed him - which resulted in smack one, as he kicked and hit me as I tried to dress him, and even spat at me , I don't even know how he knows about spitting on people being a bad thing to do. I took him into the shop, he lay on the car park floor and screamed and then lay on the shop floor and screamed, so I carried him kicking and screaming back to the car. I tried to put him in his car seat to go home but I couldn't do it, he was fighting so hard!! This lead to smack two. In the end I gave up and sat and read my book while he screamed around the car for ages. He finally calmed down enough for me to get him in the car seat and we went home without any food for dinner. It was insane, I literally didn't know what to do with him...and I thought he'd finished with toddler tantrums.

Mary - that sounds hard. Does she have any friends from clubs or your local area? Is it just a lack of friends at school? Has she recently moved to a new school, or has she always had problems making friends?

DMC - Sounds like you've got a pretty strongwilled child there, you're going to have problems later .

Racing - Hope the rest of the day went well!

JM - Bum doctor ?!

[drivingmisscrazy]

A and O midwife in Holles Street called her a drama queen when she howled all night the first night on this planet - and I assume she'd seen a few newborns in her time! if you sit in an unauthorised chair she comes up and slaps it while saying 'no, no, no, no, no'. Here comes trouble

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

[ASmallBunchOfFlowers]

[Scout19075]

To be a party-pooper, is there an alcohol-free alternative on tap? Have never been a big drinker and while still BFing a bit leary....

BabyScout is upstairs AWAKE! Argh. He woke up around 11:10 for his first feed. Asked DH to "calm" him while I washed my hands (have been baking so was covered in flour and chocolate) and he got him wound up! I said calm, not talk to and get him wide awake. Grumble, grumble, grumble. I need him to sleep so I can keep getting ready for our overnight tomorrow.

Does the longhall have a place to place homebaked treats?