Dec 2007 - Little People, Large Strops

[strandedatseasonsgreetings]

Will this do everyone?

Gosh beckle - sounds like a very difficult time but glad you met your DH2 and the rest has been such nice history!

clara - yaaay well done for getting on the course. How long is it and what will it entail? Once you've done it will the job take up a lot of time? Very exciting and enjoy your night out Re job, still don't know (won't find out for sure for a couple of months) but it's looking pretty positive. Went to a formal dinner at 'high table' at one of the Oxford colleges last night to try and rub shoulders with people who might help to fund the job, and oh my goodness - chateau neuf de pape (sp??) wine which is about £30 a bottle I think, champagne before dinner, four courses, then through to another room for port, madeira, figs (!), chocolates... and all wearing a ridiculous formal gown - I am DEFINITELY not cut out for all this pomp and ceremony...

DH away this weekend and forgot to plan anything - think it's going to be one those awful playground/feeding the ducks in the rain with no adult company type weekends - boo - well and a bit of MN in the evenings to lift my spirits

Not the best disguise is it?! I fancied a namechange but could think of nothing witty, I've recommended MN to a couple of friends recently and I'm not sure I'd want them to recognise me on here IYKWIM, since emails from me have the sender listed as beckle speckle I thought it wouldn't be too hard!

Clara, that's fab news about the course! I hope you have a nice night out with your friends too and don't get too pished squiffy!

BT, I hadn't heard about that tiny victim, so so - I feel for everyone but it always makes me sadder when they are so young.

Skidd, it wasn't the best of times but much of it was my own doing, I'm a firm believer in fate that everything that happens to you makes you who you are and everything you do gets you where you need to be eventually That swanky dinner sounds fab! Not sure I'd want to do it often but wearing a posh gown, drinking nice wine and eating chocolate, sounds lovely! Like spending a night in someone else's life. I'm glad its looking positive for the job though Feeding the ducks and lounging with the children sounds like a lovely weekend to me (I'm easily pleased), we are planning on watching a film in the morning and playing board games in the afternoon whilst DD sleeps tomorrow and Sunday will probably not be much different if its still raining! We don't generally see much of DH TBH, he usually spends Saturday running about doing stuff with/for his mates until at least lunch time and Sunday he'll be in the shed working on his latest project (currently an Escort van which he's turning into an Escort pickup).

I took the DCs swimming today and DD was brave enough to go down the toddler flume by herself today (adults not allowed) - she loved it! She just kept squealing with delight at everything, the floats, the flume, the water sprays, the wave machine It was fab! She did have one panicky moment when she needed a wee but didn't realise in time I hope no-one noticed... She's a little hot and sweaty tonight and had a bad tummy (probably the amount of yukky water she swallowed), hopefully she's not coming down with anything.

BT, I did giggle at your comment on my namechange

Beckle, aww lovely re flume ride. You must have been very proud! And I agree your photos are very beautiful.

Skid that dinner sounds very posh and a bit daunting. Wishing you heaps of success with the task ahead.

Clara, congrats well done you! You'll be great - the world needs as many good ante-natal teachers as poss, it makes such a big difference the first time around. Mine basically convinced me to try for a homebirth (which we had successfully) - i would never have even considered.

BT, have you started that name thread yet?

I seem to have spent most of this week on the verge of tears. I just can't watch any media coverage as I start crying. All those poor people. The death toll is at 144 and still over 200 missing presumed dead. How can this happen here in my lovely country? One of my colleagues' wives is one of the victims. My school friend is OK but she had to make her way from the centre city, past dead bodies in the streets to get to her kids' school...if I feel traumatised, I can't imagine how she and my cousin are feeling.

Gosh Buzzy that just sounds so awful. Of course you are feeling traumatised, it's so close to home. The best thing to do (in my opinion) is to talk talk talk to people. You will have a lot of emotions sitting inside you, the best thing is to get them out. I found the pictures so shocking, especially the one of the collapsed cathedral as I remember visiting Christchurch.

Skid - blimey to the posh dinner! I'm not so great at posh. Tonight won't be posh but it will be lots of Army types. As my friend said, I will have to put up with a lot of "gaffawing"! I know what you mean about unorganised weekends - I panic when I don't have anything planned. I have a couple of fall backs for those enless wet afternoons - one being a foot spa (I have a lot of unused foot creams!), making flapjacks and some crafty stuff.

The training is over 2-3 years, one tutorial every month with work inbetween (including observing courses) and a couple of residential weekends - which I am REALLY looking forward to! I have to teach three courses before I "graduate" - then I am a teacher and I think I can teach more or less as much as I want. Mostly evenings and weekends though so it won't be full time! I probably won't want to do more than one or two evenings a week and the odd weekend course, but I don't think it pays massively well so I won't be getting rich from it. I have a few other things I wanted to do but I think they might have to be put on hold until dd2 starts school as I am not going to have the time.

Beckle - the pool sounds great, your dd obviously loves the water. Has she swam in the sea yet?

Hello all! Visitor from the distant past checking in! I've just had a read through this most recent thread, lovely to hear how everyone is doing. Didn't recognise loads of posting names at first then realised loads of you were still calling each other by your original Dec 07 names which is so lovely! (and helpful!). Very glad buzzy is ok, and so sorry, this must be such a difficult time for those in NZ.

All is well here I am just rubbish at keeping up with a thread, but might manAge now with my marvel that is my iPhone!

Dd was 3 in Dec (obviously!) and goes between being a joy and a nightmare, reading your posts that seems to be par for the course! I am also Pg (congrats BT and Dundee!) (sorry if I missed anyone!), 28wks now and reeeeealllly feeling it, ow and zzzzzz. Dd has remained an early morning girl, it is killing me atm!

Also taking tentative steps into potty training, was worried everyone else on here would have cracked it! Have gone cold turkey for a week now, I'd say we were at about a 70% success rate, which is ok I suppose! But when she wees she really wees, the puddles are mortifying! she is also holding in poos which causes no end of trouble, that was why we abandoned last time!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Caz- hello!! Just started cold turkey potty training DS yesterday, no luck so far.
Am very at DH as he took DS outside in pants and trousers because DSS wanted to go out and play, knowing he hadn't done a wee. So of course despite me asking every 5 mins "do you need to do a wee", when DS comes back him his trousers and pants were soaked.
So he did not do anything on the potty at all yesterday (we started after lunch).

So far today nothing, he has no nappy on since he got up.

Buzzy - can understand why you feel as you do, it is a terrible tradegy, so for your colleague. Glad you got news of your school friend, does she and your cousin have places to stay?

Beckle - yey for your DD!!! I am sure she won't be the only toddler peeing in the pool

Stranded - course sounds great! Is it with the NCT?

Oooh NCT course sounds great!

Well I am truly hating potty training

Did really well this am, used the loo twice at a friend's house, refused potty at home, then dashed off to use the toilet at a cafe where we had stopped to get take out coffees.

So there we are having a lovely walk in the woods, I am all smug relaxed as DD has weed in the last 20 mins and therefore we should be fine for an hour or so, when she runs off and does the most enormous wee without even a word of warning/trying to get trousers off. What's that all about?!!

Also meant to ask if anyone's LOs have started their 15hrs a week pre-school/ante-pre - DD started in January, I was a snivelling wreck! She is loving it though!

Caz10 - you are not alone, I am also hating it!!

BTW how often does your dd wee?

Yesterday DS did a wee in his nappy when he got up, then when nappy free. Did a big wee in the potty at around 12pm, and no accidents. He had a nap in the afternoon and had a nappy on for that, and then stayed in nappies for the rest of the day - he was a little out of it when he woke up, I was working so DH didn't push it.

Today, got nappy off when he got up - full of wee. Keeps saying he doesn't need potty, certainly hasn't had an accident (just checked him now). Just worried that he might be holding it? No poo either.

Am sending him in to nursery tomorrow with pile of training pants and spare trousers!

Just as I posted that he said "I need a wee" so got his pants off and he already weed. Have sat him on the potty in case there is any more.

At least you're trying!! I've stuck my head in the sand ... all I'm doing is getting her to sit on the potty first thing in the morning when she's guaranteed success, sticking her in pull-ups for the rest of the day and praying that one day she'll miraculously go to the loo on her own

Hi Caz - congratulations! DD has been to childcare in NZ close to full time since she was 6 months old. Although that feels fairly comfortable, still don't enjoy getting phone calls like today to report that she'd been bitten on the arm by another child, ouch.

DD's current obsession is with indentifying letters at the beginning of names she knows. We have to go through the entire ABC going "A is for Anne" "B is for Beatrix" "C is for Connor" etc. I think its more about labelling than reading though. What are your LOs really really interested in right now?

Buzzy - that's kind of what we are doing.

Quite a few people said to use training pants rather than pull ups as they tend to get treated like nappies.

Didn't stop DS doing a big poo in his training pants though

Hi all,

Well IMHO if potty training is a struggle I would just leave it - a friend of mine waited till hers were 4 and said they decided when to stop being in nappies and the transition was so painless that she barely noticed it. But easy to say I know. I caved with DS1 when I couldn;t bear the pressure from ILs anymore - but sort of wish I had waited as he is still not great and having them in nappies is soooo much easier than having a partially trained child!

buzzy - DS1 is also obsessed with 'reading' - he can't read at all but DD 'teaches' him so that he memorises her reading books and it really does look/sound like he is reading - DH almost had a cow when he came home to witness it

caz10 hello! and congratulations!! How exciting - do you know gender or are you having a surprise? 28 weeks - you must be getting pretty knackered. Are you working? Hope you can get a bit of help with childcare - those last few weeks with a child to look after are a right killer! Have you read the thread "two under three" which is currently a discussion of the day? Think it might be comforting and terrifying at the same time (brings back lots of memories for me)

clara -how was your night out?

Weekend without DH was lovely in the end - I am finally really enjoying having 3DC a year in. DD and DS1 play really well together now (3 years in!) and they both dote on DS2 who is unbelievably cute atm - has three words: mama (of course!), hiya and quack quack

Good luck with potty training BT and caz (and buzzy - sort of!)

AAAAAAAAAAGH just wrote a really long message and then got one of those stupid internet connections messages so it has disappeared!!!!!!!! Will have to come back later and re-do it, I covered all sorts of things. AAAAGH.

Hi everyone, just a quick one from me as am really ill at the moment

Sympathies re potty training, dd was a bloody nightmare although finally doesn't have full wees but still leaks most days where she leaves it too long. Was dreading training ds after her but thankfully I didn't need to and he did it himself. Annoyingly it's dd I worry about having accidents when out and about and she is 4! But has finally had two nights without a nappy and with no accidents (irritatingly I have to give H credit for that because dd has been asking for 2 weeks to stop wearing night nappies but because I couldn't face the bed changing etc and we had guests over half term I said she only could if she had 3 dry nappies in a row. However they stayed at H's this weekend and he let her go without a nappy and she was fine )

Hello caz Can't believe you are 28 weeks already!

Buzzy it is very upsetting seeing it all on the news, my friends were there, both ok but their hotel was ruined and they've lost all their stuff. In a way I'm glad it wasn't a few days earlier because she was there alone and her bf had only just joined her-just relieved she had someone with her and didn't go through it alone really.

Beckle you fast mover you I also like to believe stuff happens for a reason, though it is sometimes hard to work out what that reason is...

Clara the course sounds good, pleased you got your place. How was the dinner?

I went out (wearing a bright purple wig no less!)for a few drinks for my friend's bday on Saturday (even though I was feeling really ill ), spent most of the night coughing and feeling sorry for myself but got chatted up by some VERY young boys, seriously one of them didn't even look 18! And I got ID'd so am maybe not as haggard as I feel. Was home by 11 though, was really not up to it.

That wasn't very quick after all

Aww FO - hope you feel better soon!
And at your irresistability, ya still got girlfriend!!!

clairey - get better soon

also at being chatted up by an 19yr old (not sure if that's envy or nausea...)!

clara - how annoying - make sure you come back and repost though!

My little baby is ONE TOMORROW [happy][need another one]

Ha Skid - that was one of the things I posted about (along with potty training, which was very tedious and I can't be bothered to re-write it all but much sympathies to everyone dealing with puddles on the floor, you need to move somewhere where you don't have carpets...) - I can't believe your ds2 is already one! I was shocked when you said he had some words already as I thought he was still a tiny baby....I think I'm losing track of time a bit!

Go Clairey - you Cougar!

I need a new phone and I'd love an Iphone but we can't justify the expense and of course there's a thread about them and how wonderful they are....anyone got one or an alternative? Dh wants me to get a Blackberry as he can get a good deal on one; I think it's either that or and HTC but I can't be arsed to do the research.....

Popping in to say a quick hi and a happy birthday to skidd's little M.

Imogen is Hating playgroup for the first 5 mins and then apparently having a great time.
Had a massive potty regression when she started which I'm putting down to being really tired.
Her latest and dearest wish is to be allowed to wear big girl pants at night..... in your dreams my little blonde sweetheart as currently you pretty much soak through a motherease reusable with 2 boosters in it!

No time to read back through I'm afraid, but I do recal Buzzy being an NZer and really hoping she's doing ok.

Hello Arcadie

Both dc wet the bed last night (yes ds has to wear 'big boy knickers' at night like his sister now). Will try a few more nights and if not go back to nappies for both. As dd said "the first nights it is really exciting to wear knickers so you don't wee them but then it stops being exciting and you forget". Bloody dd and her wee!

Happy birthday to ds2 skid. I can't believe he is now one! Where has that time gone??

Clara my mum has researched into phones recently...I think she has pretty much decided on the htc but it really depends what you use it for.

Hey Arcadie

Potty training is not going well. DS had a huge vomiting episode last night and has done 2 really enormous squitty poos so have put him back into nappies.

Will again in a week's time.

thanks for bday wishes especially from arcadie [waves frantically and endeavours to make more visits over to March2010]

BT squitty poos, mmm, have them here too (x2: DD not yet affected) - a lovely way to spend a night - up four times to change really revolting nappies

clara - Friends have told me that nothing compares to an iphone but I am too skint to know for myself

Right off for some leftover birthday cake...

Hi all! Have to say I LOVE my iPhone...although it is strangely crap at doing actual phone things! Texting not great and calling a bit bizarre, but mobile mn is a joy!!

Think we might be getting somewhere with potty training, Dd has been dry at nursery for 3 days (1st 3 days of being there in pants) so fingers crossed this is us this time. Pooing still an issue, she holds it in, aaarg, but I am determined not to go back this time! Never thought i'd miss nappies!

Happy birthday to mini-skiddadle, hope it was a nice day!

Aaah have already found first iPhone drawback, it is v hard to scroll back up while typing and read all your posts!

BT Dd seems to be a bit of a camel and only wees about every 3hrs no matter how much juice I load her up with! But then I get quite stressed as any accident is a TOTAL flood!

Bump is a girl! Yes, still working although just 4 days now, but tbh I am absolutely knackered and can't wait to stop. Got to go to about 38wks though money-wise pooo

Dd loves her books too and is highly into dragons/princesses/magic etc type stories- I am forever having to pretend to be an evil wizard or something along these lines!!

Ps I got a cheap iPhone deal because I am on a partner scheme thing with Dh, and also cos I got the old model (abs fine for me!), took a bit of shopping about though