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!

Ooh I read Fat Is A Feminist Issue years ago - it was very interesting from what I recall! There was an item on the radio today about body image (prompted by Penny Smith in the Daily Mail saying she hates her body), saying that women these days feel worse about their bodies than they used to due to airbrushing of famous people in magazines etc. I actually care much mess about my body now than I used to, cos I have better things to worry about, and I never have time to read magazines so don't really give a toss what other women look like! I always feel really sorry for Tess Daly when I see her on SCD tho because I know to be that thin you have to practically eat nothing. How miserable is that? Although I do think eating well is important for your mental and physical wellbeing. i always feel so rough when I come back off holiday if I have spent 2 weeks eating cakes and drinking too much wine!

Abdn, I tries D with Oatibix the other day but he was not impressed! Today he has been ill and hadn't eaten any solids really in 24 hours, so at tea time I made him really sloppy oatibx with milk and pear and he was loving it! Hopefully it will help him sleep cos it is all he has had today apart from lots of breastfeeds!

biscuits ikea is almost three hours from here - we can't afford to go to ikea!!! (grumbles and pouts).

We're reasonably good at taking care of things so I hope we'd wipe up etc for the counters. If not - I just can't bear to go for a cheap laminate!

neenz - fingers crossed D sleeps for you!

Amber - I've gotten to the point where I don't like holidays anymore - it's too much work for me and everyone else seems to have a lovely time (and that's with my parents and DH to just two kids) so I'm impressed with you! That being said I'm optimistic about our trip to France in a month.

waves to everyone!

Hey all, I'm lurking here - suffering somewhat from severe tiredness, but I guess there are others with better claims than me so I can't whinge! It's work which is tiring (heavy teaching load, plus a bit of stress really) but I seem to get sick by Thursday, and not recovered until around Sunday. Then it starts again!
All well with the baby though. I know what I'm having, but I'm not telling! You can start a sweepstake or something - might be fun. Sex, and weight (and maybe hair, bcos sex is 50/50)? I'm happy to supply a prize.
Tips: Iestyn was 6lb with blond hair (a surprise for anyone who has met me and DH!).

Abdn worktops - I didn't want wooden ones because of the hassle, and couldn't afford stone (really wanted Welsh slate...the cost is amusing given that I'm surrounded by so much of it!). In the end I just got the matching plastic (posher than that but it is basically plastic) one which I already has - I think it's quite attractive, and it's hardwearing and low maintenance. Just like me! This is what I have, in dark anthracite fino.

Neenz where in north Wales are you going? I'll be around if not in labour!

Rolf is still missing! And Maya too.
Sorry to all I've missed - I've got to go to tidy up downstairs now and then probably to bed!

Weight loss? Hahahahaha! I'm doubling mine!

Ah Dewin you're having another boy . It's Abergele we're going (the Park Resorts holiday park), which is lovely cos my grandma used to live in Abergele and we used to go to the arcade on the seafront and play those 2p slot games. proper British seaside stuff! Will be nice to go back

dewin I'm thinking a girl, dark hair and 6lb 12oz.

back later, haven't had tea yet.

I'm going to pm Rolf on FB and see where she's got to.

Well, I'm not telling, but happy to open a guessing page on facebook or something!

Neenz I hope it's an interesting read. At uni, my college which is a hotbed of feminism (genuinely) had a small feminist library which Inused to dip into for some light relief from my course reading list.

Dewin's baby - definitely over 10lbs

AH you can get granite for much much less if you shop around on the Internet. DH did the research but found a company that drove to us from Yorkshire with the uncut stone, templated, cut and installed it in one visit and IIRC charged less than 50% of retail.

Jealous of worktop discussions! I dream of a new kitchen, ours is a lovely size, loads of storage space, but OLD!! drawers stick etc and it is so old the spares to repair are no longer available ... but it will be a long long time before we can even think about doing that, many other higher priority things to do if ever we get spare money (I was sticking clear packing tape around windows last night to catch the draughts, for instance ...).

I am v. excited about our holiday this year, we are going to my mum's for a week! Kids love it, I can tolerate mum for that long if she is at work , loads of space, mum and bro run a boatyard so we can go and do exciting things like sail boats and sit on diggers, and all it will cost us is petrol. In fact this is likely to be our default holiday for quite some time to come

Read FIFI as a plump teenager and bloody glad I did or I would have spent the next 10 years yoyo-ing and getting nowhere. Equally glad though to have discovered low-carbing which was my other bit of the puzzle as to why my particular body was out of control around food. The two together are completely liberating.

I think dewin will have a boy 6.5 lb with fair hair again.

There are loads of compounds for kitchen worksurfaces now which look like granite but are not but still as hard wearing. We've got something on puts called corian which is lovely and significantly cheaper than granite.

Thanks spider for your comment - I'm not that f@cking insensitive.

Spider - what was the name of the company? Most won't travel up our way though. We're five to six hours from Yorkshire. It is a real drawback to living here.

Systems our kitchen is 26 years old and the drawers aren't working so it sounds similar. We've already had to replace all the appliances which is bringing down the cost too £3k for the cabinets and worktops. The flooring will be the biggest expense I'm afraid!

Dewin's baby - should we look at the odds? Amber and systems had a girl (or 2) after a boy. Spider, deb, Rolf, Maya, knitting, and me have two boys as our oldest. (who've i missed) Therefore statistically it should be a girl - I'm betting on a boy though. 8lbs 1 oz :)

Amber a friend got corian and it's lovely but still a bit more than we wanted to spend. We are in a relatively inexpensive house, a 1980s three bed bungalow, so spending a lot on a kitchen is a bit of a waste. But it'll be so lovely to not have peeling laminate worktops with unidentified grime continually appearing from every crack (that sounds worse than it is). We're going to have to be really careful about water etc anyways as sink is going right in front of the window which is really low and the worktop will come right up to it. But the window's in great shape - it's one of the best in the house - so I'm not keen to replace it with a PVC one.

Amber - do you have a portable DVD player for Luke for the flight? It always works well for us when we travel. And does he have a trunki? They're great for airports and we pull both boys on them.

rolf says hello - I messaged her on fb and all is well with her tribe, just her wireless broadband is kaput - she'll be back when it's fixed!

Aberdeen - definitely going to get a trunki and fill it with his toys. Does it fit in the hand luggage? Got a DVD player - was great for the last flight and deffo going to bring it again. Still it's not till September so I don't need to care too much for now. I have booked the villa now but my sis said that her MIL only wants to come if it's lively enough which I don't think it is (she wants to sink a few shandies in the evening and dance!). It's in a really undeveloped area called Sagres in Portugal and really is one of those places you probably wouldn't leave the resort. I think there are a few 'rah' types there as well (Chelsea yummy mummy and daddies) so it might be a bit poncey! Childrens facilities there are ace though and it is on a lovely white sand beach.

S has a trunki and we took it on as hand luggage last time we flew.

We've taken the trunkis as hand luggage too. And by September I'm sure things will be much easier. Ds1 us great to travel with now and f is getting so much better too.

It seems churlish to moan about while great swathes of Japan are without power, water etc. but we had a power cut last night. I wasn't very chuffed (though it did mean I couldn't do the mountain of ironing I was about to start).

I honestly can't remember ever having a power cut (as an adult). Thankfully I had my trusty iphone - the internet was the only way I could think of finding a number to call. You forget how much we depend on electricity these days - as well as light and power, our (gas) central heating system wouldn't work, the home phone was out, no internet access on the computer.... It would have been fine before S was born, we'd have just gone to the pub! We ended up taking refuge at a friends and ended up having quite a fun impromptu night. She was looking after her own two DC as well as two DN's so I think she was glad of some adult company! S was up till about 11.30pm - but did he have a lie in this morning? Of course not!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

That was uncalled for Amber.

AH, you forgot ktpie, she is also a member of the 2008 2 Boys' Club . 8lbs 1oz would be a whopper for Dewin!!

Great to hear Rolf is well and Deb sorry to hear that you are having trouble adjusting to life back in England - it must be a hell of a shock for all of you after so long away though.

keepcalm, sympathies on the power cut - the last time we had a major one was in June 2008 when I was about 37 wks pg with A. They came round at midnight to fix it and were drilling until 5am right outside our window . I was taken into hospital that day with high BP, surprise surprise!

Hi to everyone else.

knitting it's the same weight difference between DS1 and DS2 for me - so I thought I'd go for the outside. And yes! Apologies to ktpie - I knew there were a ton of us. (But go easy on Amber - she's getting no sleep in a way that I don't think those of us with singletons can appreciate and that's horrific!).

Lol! I didn't remember that AH - I went backwards on weight with my boys .

Knitting - expect a parcel!

Had a bit of a crappy weekend. C came home from nursery with a sickness bug on Friday, DH took night shift with her, house bound by weather yesterday, DH now ill meaning we had to cancel plans to see friends for lunch, who we haven't seen since before D was born. I've been solo parenting all day and am really hoping I don't get this bug as my Dsis is coming up to Scotland tomorrow with DN and I really don't want to have to miss their visit. I've only seen her at Christmas since we had our babies at the end of Nov.

Sorry, moan over x

Thanks biscuits, can you FB me your address again? Your handmade item will be ready for posting soon .

Sorry to hear about illness and cancelled plans . Nursery bugs are evil aren't they? My mum's 70th birthday weekend was totally ruined by a D&V bug last November - nightmare. Hope you remain bug free.

I've been pondering this over the weekend and I have decided to hide this thread and see if I can quit MN. I have really enjoyed and valued your friendships over the last three years but feel that it's time to move on. I'm not entirely convinced that I will be able to give up, but it's worth a shot. Anyway, rather than just disappearing I thought it would be more straightforward to say what I am doing.

Goodbye for now and best wishes to you all. xxx

Really sorry to hear that spider but understand your reasons. See you in RL x

Sorry to hear you've had a crap weekend Biscuits - how's everyone feeling today.

Spider, sorry to hear you're leaving - I could just try and convince you to move to Edinburgh via fb if you like

Miserable weather here today, but not snowing thankfully. Have some friends coming over today (one who lives in Canada so haven't seen for ages) so looking forward to that!

Sorry to hear that Spider understand but hope you might reconsider.

Something to report here on the potty training front, finally - though I don't know if it counts calling it potty training when the sum total of training I have done is buying pants! but last night Caitlin got out of the bath and announced she needed a wee, and did one in the potty. She was so proud of herself she did about five small wees in the potty over the next hour or so . She wanted to go to nursery in nappies again today so I let her, but talked to them and they are going to try her on the potty regularly. She might want to wear pants at home though, we'll see. But she was so proud of herself, doing double thumbs-up at me and high-fiving me, was very cute .