June 2008: new year, new diets, new resolutions, but when push comes to shove creme eggs are still the solution!

[KnittingRocks]

Sorry, couldn't cope with Christmas anymore!

libra yes, there's lots of name changing - I'm finding I'm using more real names in my head instead of nicknames now! Glad your commutes are shorter - I had very long commutes in the snow as traffic was at a standstill and it was soul destroying - I'm glad it's warmer and I'm back on my bike.

Dewin sorry they were so late. (Reese's peanut butter cups). I was worried because the only time I've ever had anything get lost in the post before was when I mailed chocolate. Actually they slit the envelope and ate the chocolate but forwarded the letter which was better than tossing it in the bin I guess...

Hi Libra - I was Ali. I had another baby back in November, a boy who is on my FB page.

Thanks for the mouse catching tips. Well, the trap is installed and baited with peanut butter. I will let you know what the night brings.

Shattered here. Mostly because of P's early mornings. He is v tired in the day too, so is having some massive tantrums about unexpected things. W has actually slept all evening for the first time. I hope this is a good sign rather than meaning he is about to wake for the night.

Night All.

Posting on phone, so apologies for brevity...

Dewin, we had a similar thing on first day in pants at nursery - 5 bags of wet clothes to take home - day 2 only 2 and no more since 2 weeks down the line. We were also hit and miss with poos for the first 2 weeks but so far there have been no accidents since Saturday.

D is doing well after her illness has to weigh in again tomorrow to ensure she hasn't got any more waif like - here's hoping she's still above the 2nd centre - maybe she'll even hit the 9 lb mark this week!

I am really pleased with myself on the new year resolution front - I joined weight watchers 2 weeks ago and so far I've lost 7 lbs still got a long way to go though!

Am keeping up with everyone's news, will try and get on the real computer soon so I can post properly!

Hi Libra, nice to hear from you!

Abdn, thanks again for the great handmade gift - am doing yours next in my list!

Hello Libralady

We're just finishing off doing the accounts. This year we've managed (so far) not to shout at each other. Big result!

Biscuits I'm v jealous of your weight loss.

I feel as though I am wearing someone's fat suit. My jeans are too tight and I am very cross with myself. Hopefully T's nursery will re-open next week (they had a burst pipe) and I can get out for some bracing walks.

Just a quick mouse udpate, we have had a success with the humane trap, baited with chocolate

Went to see the last house today, nice house, huge garden and paddock, BUT no off street parking, £429,000 and slightly smaller floor space than the mid terrace!!Really nice vendors though with a boy in Tristan's class(and 4 other children under 8) so if nothing else, we may have found a playmate for T!

oops, it wasn't a mouse , it was a field vole!!Thought it had small ears for a mouse so I just googled some pictures and there it was!

Weird - I can still only find the thread via the link at the end of the old thread....wondered if I hid it by accident whilst night feeding - I'm not at my smartest at 4am!

Not much time to catch up, but re: mice, no traps have ever worked for us (in London or in NZ). DH uses a timberland/DM boot and hits them over the head. There's something both horribly neanderthal and yet still sexy about his practicalness sometimes. He aims to do it gently and I'd say about 50% survive and get taken outside to run amok elsewhere. None of our mice have ever shown signs of eating our food though. (What does that say about our cooking?). Much, much worse was living about a indian takeaway and getting their cockroaches. Yuk!!!

Libra - I was penguin, but Maya is very close to my real name (surname anyway) so should help you remember.

Felix demanding feeding, back later.

La, la, la - ignoring all potty training talk.

Shouldersback - well done on the weight loss! Is the new WW program easy to follow?

Deb - it sounds like the house hunting is going well. With the first house, is there anyway you can check out the neighbours? I think with terraced houses it is so much more important than normal.

Spider - hope W did sleep thru.

Still having trouble with a middle name for F and would be grateful for suggestions/opinions, quite like 'out there' names so most options considered. Currently looking at James (i'm 50% scottish and it's a family thing), but would that be silly with my surname and a certain top gear presenter? Other option is casper, but would it look like the poor lad was wholly named after 70's cartoon characters? We originally were going for Bodhi, but my hormones have calmed down now!

Dewin - how's the sickness now?

Maya - I think James fails on the "out there" stakes, but it works well with F and I wouldn't worry about the top gear thing for a middle name. Caspar doesn't sound q right with Felix IMO. If you are planning to come back to the UK for the long term what about choosing a middle name that indicates that this is your Kiwi baby: something Maori or look at NZ botany for inspiration? I know nothing about the flora and fauna of NZ, but when I lived in Oz I remember thinking that some of the names of their native trees would make great names - Boronia for a girl I though! (I was 18 at the time)

Mouse update - no catch overnight.

Sleep update - W slept normally last night after sleeping all evening - yay!

I've just driven to a gymnastics place and P has fallen asleep on the way. He is so tired but physically not tired enough (if that makes any sense at all) so lots of tantrums and racing around like a mad thing. I think I will let him sleep for 15 mins then wake him for some running around.

Alexander for the middle name. Scottish, and goes with Felix IMO.

I've not been sick since the weekend. I most definitely have a bump, tho - and am in desperate need of trousers now (I only have jeans and a pair of work trousers I bought in the sale - they're under-the-bump style and I'm not keen, especially given that it's arctic here today.) Will have to get in touch with Neenz pronto!

Neenz and Rolf a crib update. I am now innundated with cribs. Bizarre! Ok, not innundated, but I've been offered a second one - my aunt has it, and it was handmade by my cousin who is a joiner. He and his wife won't be having another baby and his only sibling is married to Karen who is currently overcoming chemo and breast cancer (but wasn't planning on having a second one anyway). This has now been offered to me as the 'family crib'! Which is fine. I will still promise to come to meet you and Neenz for lunch just the same though!

I might make a bid for a carseat though, if anyone has one to sell or loan! Remind me why I can't buy one off e-bay? Because I need a maxi cosi one to fit on my quinny pram (which I didn't have last time), but they're dead expensive - more than £100. I'm also looking at secondhand amby nests for London (and travel) and thinking of you, Spider. Did it work out last night?

Potty training - one accident at nursery yesterday, but it wasn't a full wet, more of a starting to wee before getting to the potty incident (i.e. clean nappy but not trousers). We've not had a poo accident for a while, not even a 'touching cloth' accident. It's lovely in our house these days...

dewin dont worry about accidents, it might take a while, theo has been thru major regression since new year, almost an accident a day. now i have realised i need to keep talking about it/reminding him and telling him how pleased i am/big cuddles and praise when he goes. we've had no accidents since monday. he's been out of nappies since nov! so it can be long haul, but for me better than washing nappies. esther otoh has been dry since about second week after we started! each childs different.

Sorry, one-handed typing there while feeding Daniel.

Amber, well done for BFing as long as you did and expressing too. I know how arduous expressing can be. Keep up the good work! I used to love taking the twins out - I never got bored of people stopping me and admiring them. Enjoy it!

Sleep has improved here since weaning Daniel. He wakes once a night and is getting better at going to bed in the evenings not staying up till 10. So I get an OK amount of sleep, I am still shattered by 5.30pm tho and think 'I can't last another hour till DH gets home'! Most of the time tho I feel ok and very proud of my kids and happy being at home looking after them.

I have signed up for the Food Sense programme (Dana Obelman - sorry haven't got time for link!) to try to get T and E to eat better. Major changes have been getting rid of high chairs so we all sit together at the table now, and letting them choose their own food from the dishes on the table. The only new food tried so far has been prunes (or black apricots as E calls them!) which is disappointing cos she already eats loads of fruit and her poos tell the story! (sorry tmi!) But I am hopeful they'll start eating more. I have also turned the TV off at mealtimes cos I realised I was using it to keep them eating for longer but the point of this programme is they eat what their hunger tells them to eat, so you shouldn't use any crutches like tv, rewards, bribery etc to get them to eat. They just eat what they want and no one gets stressed! (That's the idea anyway!) Got to go pick them up from preschool now!

Dewin do you want to meet for lunch in Liverpool to pick up mat clothes or is Rolf's still on?

Neenz she saved my sanity with her Sleep Sense programme, I read the Food Sense one too once ds started getting picky with food - all I remember is to be very very relaxed about what they are eating - which is fine with me (C eats almost nothing, but appears fine on it) but dp gets very annoyed when they don't touch their dinner so we have re-introduced the 'if you don't eat dinner you can't have anything else' rule.

Dewin last night was fine from W's perspective. P woke at 12.30, 3.30 and has been awake since 5.40 this morning . Although timing wise W will be out of the Amby by the time your baby arrives, I suspect I'm not in a position to offer it to you as it would seem my Mum has "offered" it to her neighbours' daughter . Or possibly my Mum's neighbour has said that her daughter would buy it off me . The neighbour is lovely but somewhat overbearing. No-one seems to think I might want to hang onto it in case there is a third baby. lots of the Amby reviews talk about using the Amby for travel. It's certainly easy to erect, but is a bit bulky, packed up it is similar in proportions to a set of golf clubs to give you an idea.

Things must be going OK for you to be considering no.3 Spider! I am NOT IN THE LEAST BIT considering no.4! (But I think I will get broody in 3 years or so. )You should be able to bottle the fatigue/tiredness of a new baby and then open it when you feel like having another

Systems, yeah it's good because they are offered their meals and two snacks and if they don't eat they don't get anything else. I never gave them treat food but I think I was letting them fill up on fruit in the afternoons because I knew they wouldn't eat dinner. Well full up on fruit they won;'t eat dinner will they?! So I'm trying to get them a bit hungrier.

Been on an anti-cuts demo tonight (you may have seen on FB!) It's the second one I have been to - this one was much better attended: the cuts are beginning to bite and people are getting angry. We have invited the chief executive of Sefton council to one of our Anti-Cuts Coalition meetings and she is coming on Feb 15!

Neenz and Dewin I'm still v happy to host but now that there's no heavy crib to collect we can go somewhere more exciting if you prefer. Dewin - you'll be doing the big journey so you may choose

Is the eating thing suitable for older children as well. DS2 (9) is a terrible eater and none of the strategies I've tried have had any impact whatsoever . He's a mulish little bugger...

On the way home from school today T fell over, flat on her face and had a big cut on her lip. Then a minute later DD1 did the same thing. They each have a huge fat lip and grazes. We looked like we were escaping from marauding zombies.

My dad very kindly looked after T for a few hours today. When I came home I went upstairs to the bathroom to be greeted by the most awful mound of poo I have ever seen. I think T must have taken herself off to the loo, done the world's biggest poo in her potty and then tried to clean it up. Half of it was on the loo seat and half on the floor with the remainder of the 110% poo smeared around the place. I'm a bit at my dad's lack of vigilance. He said he thought she had just done a wee and was then doing an inventory of her tights.

Yuck Rolf, poor you.

Neenz crazily the tiredness is about 80% caused by Peter. Similarly I wouldn't consider another for a good few years, Peter will probably still be waking at 5am by then . Anyway I'm not quite ready to ditch the baby stuff yet.

Rolf Thats sounds unpleasent.

DH was supposed to be off work today as we have a huge amount of sorting out to do in the house and it needs to be done before the hall carpet is fitted on Friday. We are both out tommorow and DH has invited his parents over for dinner tommorow. He cancelled his leave last yesterday evening and I have been so upset/angry since. I had a big mountain of washing to sort and as I am so fed up only 1/3 has made it back to our drawers, 1/3 is going to charity and the other 1/3 - our underware is going to the tip to be recycled. Am so fed up of trying to sort out odd socks, work which dd the knickers belong I just got rid - will replace with new ones in Tesco tonight!!

Dh has invited his parents around sunday not tommorow.

Just marking place. Have been living the life of a young childless person for the last week (i.e. lots of late nights and alcohol) and and feeling quite zombie like. Have a night out tonight for a belated birthday celebration which is about as a appealing as a wisdom tooth extraction with no pain relief. However, the babysitter was booked long before I knew about all the other (work-related) things I'd be doing this week and she'll be gutted if we don't let her look after S!!!

Not much has registered in my brain, but Dewin I think you asked about why you can't be car seats on ebay? Presumably it's a safety thing because of the advice against buying second hand car seats? We did sell ours though (well, we were selling the base, and the chap ended up buying the seat for the gp's car).

Oh dear they must look a sight Rolf! Theo also likes to put the contents of his potty down the toilet - I have to get there quick to help or it goes everywhere. I can email you the e-books from the food plan - it is all quite sensible and might give you a few ideas. Unfortunately Esther seems to be eating less than before because she just doesn't come to the table at all if she doesn't fancy what's on offer! At least in the high chair she was stuck there so often at least ate a yogurt. Today she just had milk for her tea. BUT she tried some cheese at lunchtime which she has never eaten! Unfortunately she didn't like it but Theo ate some too and he did like it. Success! I am not too worried, she will eat when she is hungry, but it is frustrating when she won't sit at the table. And how do you make them?

Going, are you annoyed cos the PILs are coming on DH's day off? I am totally with you on the odd socks.

I went on an anti-cuts demo last night and am part of a local anti cuts group. There;s also another protest group for the children's centres which I also joined. But the leader of the kids' centre group says she was told by a PCSO officer last night not to associate with me or the SACC because we were under investigation by the police! We are doing a UKUncut protest outside Boots on Sunday so that might have alerted the police but we have not done anything criminal and I am that the police are telling people not to associate with us! My pal who runs the SACC went to the police about it but they denied it all so now we don't know who said what and who is lying... DH says it is probably the police who are lying! But it could be the kids' centre woman

neenz Well done for standing up for what you believe in. HAve many reporters tried to speak to you to spread your campaign? It seems more likely the policed aren't telling the truth - any murky secrets for them to dig up??

lol Going, I don't think so (unless they can drug test me retrospectively for 15 years ago ). I also think it must be the police lying because it seems like a far-fetched story for the kids' centre woman to think up on her own! It's good to get the heads-up anyway cos I will make sure our uncut protest tomorrow is completely above board!

[They are probably reading this now...]

Yes I am in quite close contact with a reporter on the local paper and we have featured in the paper a few times... he says he will ask his police contacts if they know anything, and he is coming to the protest tomorrow in case it kicks off!