Sept 08 - No no no, ME do it!

[CappuccinoCarrie]

Shiny new thread for Christmas!

Aw leonie lovely to see you here, grab a mince pie from my epic stash, or a slice of lemon cake, to give yourself the energy for the afternoon school run :)

mrsa I'll try not to be too jealous that I still can't trust my 3.5yo to tell me when she needs a wee...!

Nice to see you leonie,

Awww a brother for your ds, they will be the best of friends, any names yet?

ILTMIMI oooohhhhh lovely I have 2 boys and its fab

ILTMIMI that's wonderful! I cannot believe you're at 20 weeks already, that's crazy!
I also have brownies, lemon drizzle cake, yule log and crispies in my stash. The food baby is growing nicely

Lol MrsA my ds1 fed Daddy Pig the bacon wrapped pork sausages 2 christmases ago

I love having 2 boys and if I was to have a 3rd child I'd have to say I'd prefer another boy to a girl (that probably sounds really bad!)

We do have a name actually , but we'll be keeping it a secret until he's born. It's a bloody corker and we've loved it for ages.

I can't beleive I'm 20 weeks already either. I think because I have ds to run around after the time just flits past without me noticing. I remember with ds1 I used to sit at my desk at work and daydream about the baby and 40 weeks seemed to take forever. But this time I'm half way before I know it.

I know what you mean about another boy Debi, I was secretly hoping for another boy and was a bit nervous that it was going to be a girl. Nowt against girls or owt - I am one after all!

Aha - saw the title and had to look, and here you are!
Ds has finally come round to wearing his new winter coat (refused to take it off yesterday, but that was after a lot of grief...)

He's now in bed wearing a pair of one-armed glasses, as you do. :)

Rant time, I am FED UP with my children trashing the Xmas cards on the mantelpiece . I haven't had a tree for 3 years and I so want to put a tree up this year but I have a bad feeling they will destroy it and the novelty won't wear off. It did occur to me that maybe I should get a real tree, with glass baubles and lights with dodgy electrics - that should put them off fiddling with it .

iltmimi Lovely news .

leonie When do you need to start pushing for a statement for DD2? Sorry to hear you are so worn out .

Leonie I have no experience of your situation so don't want to patronise you with gushing sympathy but it sounds like you are a strong person doing everything you can for your amazing family.

If that sounded patronising, I'm sorry, I'm not very eloquent sometimes - just know that you can come and share the highs and lows of being a parent here with us and we will feed you virtual cake and booze if required.

Can I share something with you ladies that is possibly waaaay too much info?
Since having C, no one shuts the bathroom door anymore - no point and I certainly can't don't hide anything from her (except SW(or without)I of course!). I try to be ahem, discrete with the more feminine side of things but it's not possible to hide everything.

For the past few mornings she has bounced into the bathroom when I am having a pee, picked up my tampon bag, taken one out and stuck it between her legs and shuffled off shouting it's 'my wrapper'.

OK - help me explain that one to a two yr old!

Mmmm, tricky, MrsA. I tend to not close the door when I'm alone with D either, but of course, I've had no periods to deal with for the past 9 months. I seem to remember really hurried emptying of mooncups, but right now it's all a blur, and he was a lot littler and not as inquisitive as he is now.

We do have baths together, and invariably, he will go through a list of people who have or do not have willies: "Mami, no. Papá, willy, etc..."

I think it's all part of their growing up and finding out about the world, no?

Nice to see you back, Leonie, it's been a while :)

Just tell her the simplified truth MrsA, something like 'because mummy is a lady and not a girl she bleeds every month'

That will probably be quite enough info for her and she'll be satisfied with an answer.

Meglet - we have a small fake tree, but I have got glass baubles, but they won't go on until I'm sure the novelty of poking the tree has worn off. Have you got a string of lights you can hang up high? If you have buy some pegs and peg your cards to the string - voila. Pretty feature and cards out of the way.

mrsa Agree with ILTMIMI Just tell a cimplified version of the truth.

Have got the flu :( Feel awful. Beavers party tomorrow and ds1's nativity on thurs :(

sigh....simplified

I found it handy taht DD1 saw mw changing my mooncup as it measn she's always known and so I won't have as much explaining to do later.

leonie Do you have to take the full uk driving test these days? I always assumed that a US licence was valid over here, or did you not take a test in the States?

iltmimi I am on the verge of getting a real tree, hopefully the prickliest one in Homebase . I do have a peg thingy for cards but I wanted to have some on the mantelpiece but it hasn't worked out . I love the idea of putting the fairy lights up out of the way!

I've just put my finishing touches to my latest supermarket snowmaggedon / zombie plan delivery. It's nearly all store cupboard food so what doesn't fit in the kitchen can go in the loft until it's needed. At this rate I won't have to shop in January, I've even got flour for bread and long life milk...... and a lot of biscuits.

MrsA If she's happy calling it a wrapper then there's probably not much harm in letting her play with them without explanation, I think . I think I'm about to have to explain how babies get out to 4yo DS, my friend is due DC3 this week (she will have 3 pre-schoolers!) and I can see DS's head thinking about the baby being in her tummy and I know what the next question is going to be, I will tell him the truth as he's old enough to know the basics.

I'm not much help I'm afraid, ever since DD's awe and wonder 'mummy, you did a pink wee!' I'm afraid I've shut the door from that point on!
We should open our Christmas cards really, then put them on the mantelpiece, then I'll tell you what I do when the kids start trashing them!

Leonie - my mum is American, has lived here since 1971, and still hasn't bothered getting a UK passport, because she travels too much to give up her US one for 6 months. It's got to the stage where they slap her with passport application forms every time she goes through Heathrow.

Good luck with the driving tests!

Leonie had no idea you couldn't automatically drive here . That's rough.

Ta for all the comments re tampons and DD. I'm quite happy to let her play with them and give her simple explanations if she asks, I'll just have to make sure the doors are shut if we ever have company (remembers my best friend's DD, then aged about 8, wandering into the room at xmas FULL of relatives holding aloft a rotating, vibrating deluxe rampant rabbit 'what's this mummy?')

Carrie how are you feeling today - any pg symptoms yet? And how do you manage to keep doors shut?!! It's impossible unless i want wingeing toddler crying and banging her fists on the door! Oh for a toilet visit in peace.

mrsa I've started to feel a bit sick in the afternoons, and have still had a lot of cramping and pains like I had last week (which I thought were endo pain but were obviously implantation!) I feel like this has gone on forever already, and I'm still only 4 weeks!! At least by the time I get back from Christmas travels I'll be 7 weeks so that time should go quite quickly. I'm going to a few christmas parties where I'll nurse a glass of wine without drinking much and be the designated driver and I hope I don't arouse too much suspicion!

I think I just tend to sneak to the loo when the kids are busy doing other things, or say I'm going and they now realise they're not going to be allowed to come in with me so they have given up trying