NOV 07 Now they are three - pre-schools, potties and power struggles

[Greedygirl]

New thread in honour of our threenagers!

Not really !

Loopy - I bet it would all come flooding back if you had the chance to do it again!

We went to the fireworks display in town, which was very good. They launch the fireworks from a barge on the water so you can see them from quite a way off. William really enjoyed it this year, much more than last year - though last year the weather was awful and it was much better yesterday. Today we took the kids and their sets of wheels to the common and had a little picnic too. It was a really nice afternoon, lots of lovely fresh air and running around.

Hi everyone :) Just bookmarking :)

Panto tickets all booked for. :o I thought local theatre was meant to be cheap?!! I cant believe that we have just paid £21.50 x 2 and £17.50 x 1 to go and see Peter Pan in Chatham Central Theatre!! I feel slightly ripped off, but perhaps that's just me. Are your local theatres that expensive?

£48 for a family ticket isn't a bad price. I suppose this is a proper theatre, albeit a local one, so maybe that's why the prices are steep. There is also another smaller theatre about half a mile away and they do smaller productions. This year they are doing one about a white fox I think, which is aimed at 3-6 year olds, is interactive, lasts 50 minutes and is only £6.50 for a child and adult. Maybe i should have gone for that one but i do think that at the end of the day, you really cant beat a panto at Christmas!! [He's behiiiiind youuuuuu!!!] :o I might still take DD along to the smaller one if it's that price. I like keeping her busy and entertained!

Our main theatre is quite pricy. We're not doing the panto, but I am taking my mum, sister and DD to see White Christmas and that was £34 per ticket But that's nothing to what my granny has quite happily shelled out for us to go to Covent garden on Saturday. Brace yourselves (she's rich, btw, and says she can't take it with her, we're not depriving her of food or anything ) £75 per ticket There are 4 of us she is treating to this day out. So I want to get her something really lovely for Christmas, but have no idea what. Any ideas?

Got my dad's present, my sister's, and my sil's so have made a start. I'm really struggling with what to get my mum. She has had such a difficult year and has been so amazing. She feels like she hasn't been a good enough granny this year because of having to spend time visiting dad and I never use her for babysitting, I don't feel it's right when she works full-time, has to travel to Portsmouth to visit my dad, is dealing with all the legal stuff surrounding dad and needs to rest for her own health. I would rather we got to spend time with her and allow her to enjoy being with the kids, instead of putting them to bed and fighting to stay awake when DH and I go out for an evening. I read threads on here where people are complaining that their parents are daring to take a holiday and they need to find alternative childcare and have this sense of entitlement surrounding GPs looking after kids, and I hate that.

Gosh, that turned into a bit of a vent, sorry about that! Anyway, if you come up with something wonderful I can do/get for my amazing mum, let me know!

Wow, lucky you Jet!! What a lovely granny you have! :o

How about taking your mum on a spa day or something? Something where she can just relax and feel (deservedly) pampered??

I have only bought 2 presents so far. One is for DD and one is for DP, which he knows about because he told me he wanted it and he knows i have bought it for him lol. Other than that, we have now run out of money to buy anything until our next pay day. Oh well, we do the same thing every year. We always say we are going to shop early and always end up going out on bloody Xmas eve to get the last minutes presents. [rolls eyes]

I had thought about a spa day - she and my dad did a really fancy one in the New Forest a couple of years ago, there's quite a few around here. The only thing is timing it around my Dad's home visits at weekends (which are becoming more frequent, which is obviously a good thing) and her on-call weekends at work which are on a rota basis. But I could do a voucher thing to be redeemed when convenient.

I did a photo calendar for my Granny a couple of years ago, and she has kept it up with birthdays on. She is perhaps overdue some nice up-to-date pics of the kids! I am going to have framed a photo I took at our reunion last month of my dad, aunt and uncle which was one of those natural un-posed ones and they all look really happy. Going to send some flowers this weekend too, just to say thanks. She is amazing - has had 2 bouts of cancer, a triple heart bypass and still travels into London once a week for sewing at Westminster Abbey, as well as visiting my dad once a week. She is writing the family history for me, as I gave her a beautiful notebook for her birthday last year. She used to entertain us with great stories of what my grandad got up to as a young man and I don't want to forget them and can't wait to share them with my kids.

There are some very inspirational women in my family! I think it's what made my sister and I the strong characters we are

Loopy - v of iphone and ipad! I think I might be getting a kindle for Christmas. The Mayflower is a great theatre, we go several times a year, I like the Nuffield too, which is great for kids as it's nice and compact. Nursery took a trip there to see a Christmas Carol last year and William loved it.

Mum's work schedule is pretty straightforward- her days are fixed weekdays, Tuesdays are for visiting dad, as are Saturdays (unless Portsmouth fc have a home game, in which case she visits on sundays) and Sundays are her day to herself, except when she's on-call. I need an advance look at the rota! But being the kind of woman she is, she swaps with any colleague with young kids who need to change when they're ill, etc. You're absolutely right, though, she does prioritize everyone else above her, always puts everyone else first and it's definitely time she had time totally to herself.

The iphone tarriff sounds pretty good to me - I pay much more than you!

£12 a ticket??!!! :( Man, i feel robbed!!! lol! Iphone package sounds good! I pay around £35 a month for mine! I was hoping for an iPad for Christmas but the bank balance is looking a bit bleak this year so i think i will have to make do with maybe a bottle of fizzy wine instead lol.

Hi girls. All this pantomiming sounds like tremendous fun. I think It will freakout Tom at the mo as he's not very good with masks and statues etc but will definately go next year.

Can't believe you are all getting organised for Christmas already. I'm very much still in denial!

We've just got back from a blissful child-free weekend at the in-laws static on Anglesey. We had a fab hike yesterday, feel so relaxed.

I saw the consultant on Fri and he agrees with me that risk reducing surgery is the best option. So my op will be end of Jan Feb. Ovaries out followed by instant menopause. Gulp. Will need some hand holding. Feel nervous about it but given that the very real alternative is getting cancer it's a no brainer.

Right off to retrieve T from the bath,

LOM - you can always rely upon hand-holding here. Sounds very scary, but you sound very brave about the surgery. xx

LOM - lots of handholding here if you need it. You are deffo making the right decision.

Loopy - I think i would have still buggered off on a "me day", even if it WAS a busy day!!

DD has decided that she no longer like the ballet teacher and so doesn't want to go any more. She said that she made her sit in the corner (!!?!!) but i'm not sure how true that actually is, given that 99% of the time i am hovering outside the door nosing through the window. She never mentioned it before last week so??? Anyway, I dont blame DD for not liking the teacher. She never seems to look at the children but more looks over them, if that makes sense?? She is more like a sugar plum dumpling than a ballet teacher!! The other teachers at the same school are all very graceful and very ballet teacher-esque and the children seem to like them (and vice versa!) but DD wouldn't be able to go into their classes until she starts school as it's all done on age. It's a shame to wait nearly a year until she goes back to ballet. DD has said that she still wants to do ballet but just at somewhere else so i am going to look into taking her somewhere else instead. What a pain tho!! Thank goodness she's still really keen on her kickboxing!!! She's been doing it for 4 months and we've only just got the uniform through!

Right, off to tackle Asda :( Have a nice afternoon ladies!

Hi all, lost you there for a bit

RG - how annoying re the ballet teacher. Kids speak the truth though I think, even if she didn't literally put Ellie in the corner (there is a song in there somewhere ) Ellie obviously hasn't taken to her and she probably has good reason.

LOM - wow, not an easy decision at all. But I think you are completely right and sensible to do it fwiw. How is the child minding going? We are not doing panto either due to extreme wussiness of our offspring. Such as shame as I think he would love most of it but he is very worried about witches after seeing Tangled.

Very jealous of your new gadgets Loopy! I have a blackberry which I hate and I dropped it after having it for about a week so the screen is all chipped and I can't afford to replace it. DH has been talking about giving me his iphone when he upgrades, I don't usually encourage upgrades (he always thinks he needs an upgrade) but could be making an exception!

Jet - hope you can find something suitable for your mum. I haven't even started thinking about presents for my mum and dad yet.

Have had a very manic week and it is Adam's football party this Friday. Can't wait! We may need a new thread soon for all our grown up girls and boys!

How was the party yesterday, Greedy? Happy Birthday Adam!

Very busy day today and I am feeling under the weather this morning. Have to take DD to gymnastics, then collect parcels from the post office, make birthday cake,meeting friends at the station to go on hen do in Winchester but coming back early to decorate said birthday cake and then to bed!

William is very excited about his birthday tomorrow

It was fab Jetgirl! I was totally knackered as I had to go to work and then whizz to the stadium afterwards but it went really well, when I first got there I thought that it looked a bit chaotic but the kids loved it and Adam loved the fact that he got to play "proper football" and he scored 3 goals! I will upload a couple of pics. The cake was made by a colleague of DH's and we were really pleased with it, plus she only charged us £20! I can't put a pic of Adam with Roary the Tiger on as there are other children in the pic too but he loved meeting him and he got a signed football which DH wanted to keep nice but which has been christened in the garden this afternoon which I think is as it should be - whoever heard of keeping a ball for best?! It is not his actual birthday until next Friday so we will be having a low key birthday tea.

Happy birthday for tomorrow William!

P.S. your day today sounds like my typical day at the moment - we all need to slow down and have a bit more "me" time!

Thanks Loopy! William had a great day and loves being 4! we went to a local country park and did a train ride and trip to the playground with one of his friends, then we had a few more round for food afterwards. I made a Batman themed cake which took 2 hours to decorate and when i get the chance I'll upload a pic as I am very proud of it. He got a Batman costume which we had to prise off him at bedtime, and a knight outfit too, which he loves. I think we're going to see a lot of imaginative play this week!

Greedy - It's just never-ending at the moment, I find. I'm out the next 3 evenings with work related stuff, so really looking forward to Friday already! Hope you enjoy Adam's birthday tea on Friday. His party sounds a lot of fun!