June 08 - 79 days (and counting) til Christmas, has Deb started her shopping yet?!

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

Thought we should update the thread!

is everyone watching the xfactor and strictly?

Not me! I've been to see a Robbie Williams soundalike

Was he any good Rolf?

We managed to privately sell my old car yesterday. We are back to being a two car family which is one less thing to sort out. Really happy with the price as we got £550 more than we were offered on part-ex.

The plan today is to get the baby stuff down from the loft.

DH has announced that he is "ill" and is back in bed. A cold though so we isn't getting much sympathy from me.

He was really good. It was a good night

slightly at getting the baby things. It's quite nice, getting everything sorted out isn't it?

Glad you had a good night Robbie. I was watching the X factor, which is pretty much what I'll be doing every Saturday night until it finishes in December!

Not much to report on here. Exams in 2 1/2 weeks . Am making marvellous progress with Christmas shopping

Did your DH go with you or was it a girls' night out?

Sorry it makes you feel a bit . I can completely understand it though. I remember feeling terribly miserable when all the baby stuff went into the loft, wondering whether it would ever be needed again. So far we have been doing non-baby jobs. I'm hoping we are getting onto the nice stuff soon. DH has even declared that this is the weekend that he is prepared to discuss baby names. This will involve him getting the credits to one of is computer games and using that as inspiration. Last time this resulted in suggestions like Gavin (apologies if anyone's DH's are Gavins)

Goddess would it surprise you to know that it was my DH? . The stuff was in storage which is entirely DH's hellhole project so I couldn't get them myself. They are still there .

Good luck with the names Spider. Let us all join in if we may!

Yes, it was a girls' night out. I'm very uptight so loiter at the back at these sort of things in a content but nerdy way, but some of the others were really giving it some

Rolf, sounds a good night. Maybe your dh has plans to sell all your stuff on ebay in the future and get loads of money for retro maternity stuff!

Spider, hope the "cold" is better soon and you get to coo over all those tiny baby clothes!

Goddess, I watched X factor this morning as it's on too late for our boys with us being an hour ahead.So who's out do you think? I think Wagner should go, didn't like Storm too much this week and Katie doesn't have half the voice of Mary or the girl from Liverpool whose name I can't remember.

Rainy day here, just been out for a short walk in the rain with Ethan and I'm hoping he sleeps now whilst I make Sunday lunch(for teatime)

I think we'll be keeping names to ourselves for now (sorry to disappoint). However I can reveal that on DH's top 5 girl's names was Martina : that'll be a "no" from me (Strictly "Strictly" in our house, but I can see how X Factor has it's uses). Anyone on the thread love Martina, and can make me see it positively?

Baby clothes still in loft. Seem to have spent the whole morning cooking. Roast gammon was yummy though.

I have to agree with you Spider I don't love Martina myself. Actually I find it really difficult to like those names which seem wholly derived from boys names (Nigella, Thomasina, Edwina, etc). Obviously this is why my dd is Georgia! The one nice name that breaks the rule.

We are a strictly family here. DD and I discuss each dress as it appears (not good so far this year, either too mumsy or fairly indecent). She and J then often dance along to the routines which is hilarious. We were gutted that Goldie went out.

Flavia's dress last night was fab-u-lous .

Not feeling the love for Martina. I love Eloise but could never use it (well, apart from any other reason, I had a boy).

Deb, I definitely think Wagner should go, but I think Belle Amie will be in the bottom two. I thought they were pretty rubbish last night - you've got to be careful about singing really well known songs on these shows IMO. Unless you're amazing it can really ruin your chances. Simon Cowell is bleating on about girl power because he knows that they don't have a natural fan base and he's trying to stir girls into voting for them. However, I suspect all the young girls are voting for Aiden or the boy band!

I think Rebecca is the one from Liverpool - I really like her. I think she bought last night's lipstick from the same dodgy market stall Cheryl Cole bought her's from though . I like Katie's performances, but find her terribly annoying. I really liked Cher to begin with and thought she was a bit different, but now I think she's just a bit of a one trick pony. Sing a bit, rap a bit, repeat same attitude-y dance moves, pull attitude-y face and repeat to fade... I like Matt, but if the NOTW is to be believed he's been getting up close and personal with Katie so has gone down in my estimation a little...

we really didn't like Natalie's. The stomach bit was just wrong and leopard print on a ballroom dress? What were they thinking?

Actually I loved Flavia's dress last week but dd is very fussy. And she is worst than my granny when it comes to Ola et al's latin dresses if they are very skimpy. She used to love Camilla's dresses as they were always pink and tasteful, the new crop of hussies are a sad disappointment to her.

Your DD sounds lovely Sybil.

Spider I saw a lovely toddler called Nicholas today, and thought how well that would go with Peter. I like Jonathan too as a brother for Peter.

Don't like Martina. I know Martina Navratilolova is marvellous but the association wouldn't please me. We almost called T Antonia but kept it as a middle name in the end as we thought she'd end up as Toni, which we didn't like at all. If we were still in the SE we might have got away with it

Flavia's foxtrot dress was stunning too. In fact in a moment of inspiration today I bought my mum tickets to Flavia and Vincent's stage show next spring. Her birthday is 2 days after my due date, and DH's birthday is on the baby's due date so I am relieved to have something up my sleeve for the November birthdays. Hope she doesn't mind waiting 6 months.

Sybil - how old is your daughter? She sounds lovely.

Rolf and DGT thanks for the ideas and for thinking of me. Nicholas and Jonathan have both been suggested by me to DH and he has said no: the former he says does not go with his surname (different to mine) and the latter is his middle name and he says no to that for some reason. Sorry not keen on Elouise, mostly because I don't really like Louise and it seems likes variation on that.

That's ok Spider - name's are so subjective aren't they? Funnily enough DH wouldn't have Eloise on our list because of similarity to Louise but I didn't make the connection at all. Ishbel is my other favourite that I couldn't ever use (a Scottish version of Isobel) but I don't think it's to everyone's taste. Helen is also nice IMO and would sit nicely with Peter I think. Anyway, I'm sure you'll think of something perfect for the new baby (we didn't tell anyone what names were on our list either).

Rolf, I ran through Toni in my head in a Scouse accent and decided you'd made the right choice

Ishbel is lovely but I feel I would need to have some Scottish credentials to use it. Isobel is great too, but so popular. I keep on thinking of Helen weirdly, but DH's surname begins with an "h" and alliterative "H" names can be a bit of a struggle to enunciate.

Helen is a name you don't hear often now. It's my sister's name and we don't talk so wouldn't be on my list . Don't get why Nicholas wouldn't go with DP's surname spider?

I also like Jonathan. But otherwise bit short on inspiration. I still love love Keir but don't think it went down well with your DP when I mentioned it last time! If we have another boy I will use it .

Loving SCD except for AW who is completely spoiling it for me . And I bet she'll stay in for weeks and other much better dancers will be out. I thought Kara's dress was beautiful last night. Oh and think if Gavin's ego gets any bigger it may block out the sun . (Oh, hate the name Gavin btw - my mum tried to persuade me to call M Gareth, think she is in love with Gareth choir man on the telly!).

Thank you for all the lovely birthday messages - we took the boys to London and had such a wonderful day. Alex absolutely LOVED the London Eye, he was soo excited. Magic .

Oh and agree on Isobel/Isabel/Isobelle/Isabelle etc, etc being very popular - the multiple spellings are what put me off! As someone who has her name spelt wrong constantly it was a big thing for us when naming the boys!

How funny about Isobel being really popular in England. I can't remember the last child I heard called Isobel, and I've never heard a child called Ishbel. What's with all the random spellings though? I wouldn't have thought Isobel should be spelt any other way and obviously Ishbel is a different name altogether. (see, Spider, you should move to Edinburgh ).

Sorry you don't speak to your sister Knitting, that's a shame (obv I have no idea of the reason, but just in general it's a shame IYSWIM).

I do like Keir, but with lots of friends who work in and around the Labour Party I know a few child Keir's already!

Shame Helen wont work with the surname Spider. I think alliterate H's (and most other letters in fact) are a bit superhero sounding!

Boys names are hard I think. James, Thomas and Simon all work well with Peter I think.

I meant alliterative obv. Oops.

I have three friends with dds called Isobel/Isabel/Isabelle (and yes they each have a different spelling!) DG!.

Helen definitely doesn't go with your DP's surname spider.

Yes, it is very very sad that my sister and I are estranged . It is an incredibly long and complicated story that I won't bore you with, but there was a lot of jealousy on her part when we were younger and she has a lot of anger about things I had no control over. We fell out four years ago she's never even met the boys .

Like James and Thomas .

Yes, James is a fab name

DH is James Jonathan. So both are out. Can you believe he doesn't like being called James? I think it's the single long syllable sound of it. Weird.

I'm feeling guilty about thread hogging with name chat. Sorry.

Christmas update for DGT: the roast gammon we had today came out of Delia's Christmas Book, do I win a prize for early Xmas food? I have been flicking through today thinking unrealistic thoughts about making my own pudding etc.