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

430 replies

Greedygirl · 08/01/2011 08:27

New thread in honour of our threenagers!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
littleoldme · 23/02/2011 20:35

Hello all.

littleoldme · 23/02/2011 20:41

Found this and though it might amuse... It's from the Simon Mayo Radio two prog.

I love listening to your Drivetime confessions slot - I particularly liked the one about the goat, which lightened my long journey home from Oxford.

It reminded me that I have a dark secret, way back from 1990 when I was the conscientious young mother of a two year old toddler. I was always very careful to ensure that my baby was brought up in a 'green' and caring manner - home made food, very few sweets, cloth nappies, eco-friendly detergents, no litter or waste and a lot of time spent teaching manners, good behaviour in public and consideration for others at all times. Toilet training was of course high on my perfect parental agenda. One day, I picked him up from Nursery after a long and tiring day at work - I'm an archaeologist - and called at a large national DIY chainstore on the way home to buy some right-on cork floor tiles for my bathroom. My son, who had just proudly abandoned nappies for the 'proper toilet' was not the most patient of children, and a moment of uncharacteristic inattention from me whilst choosing the tiles saw him toddle off and become 'lost' in the store. Having motherly visions of him being buried under a pile of bricks, or possibly being run over by a fork lift truck, I abandoned the tiling department and quickly ran to look for him. I didn't have far to go. I soon heard his little voice, piping up clearly from a nearby display of gleaming ready to fit demonstration bathrooms.

To my quiet horror, he was proudly sitting on the display toilet with his trousers round his ankles, doing a 'number 2'.

'Mummy' he proudly shouted, 'I did it - I'm on the toilet... no paper!!'. Unusually for me, I remained very very calm and quietly lifted him from the seat, firmly pulled his pants up and softly closed the lid on the number 2 which lay on the floor beneath the unplumbed dummy toilet. 'It's ok, love, you did well' I whispered, fearing an all out tantrum due to the lack of bottom wiping and hand washing. 'You can have a lolly when we get home if you are quiet all the way to the car'.

Abandoning my quest for floor covering, I moved briskly away from the bathroom section, and out into the car park before anyone noticed the lingering smell from the display toilet. I felt like an absconding shop lifter, desperate to put as much distance between us and that display as possible.

I have always felt awfully guilty for leaving the enormous poo behind in their bathroom display for an unwitting sales person or customer to discover at leisure. I just couldn't face the embarrassment of confessing on the spot, and listening to them announce 'cleaner required in bathroom isle 6' on the tannoy for everyone else to hear whilst I stood by holding a demanding toddler who would sure be loudly inquiring as to why there was no toilet paper. I just went home, thankfully distributed gin for me and copious highly colored sweeties to my grubby little boy (who is now nearly 22), and have never happily returned to the DIY store since.

jetgirl · 23/02/2011 21:44

Thanks LOM Grin Goes well with Brew. Love the toilet story.

Had a lovely weekend Greedy. We stayed with SIL and BIL in their amazing flat near Canary Wharf. We had a pub lunch in Richmond, followed by watching Harlequins v Sale and then further pubs, finishing with a curry! It was a lot of fun (though perhaps not for my liver!)

Toilet training going very badly here. I just don't know what to do tbh. DD was much easier. William hates wetting himself, so if he wears pants (which he will do with persuasion (I don't have to bribe yet!) then doesn't make it to potty or toilet (which is most times) he then sobs, screams throws a paddy and refuses to go back into pants and will only wear nappies. He knows the sensation of weeing, can tell us when he needs to wee and is dry at night (something DD didn't master until she was 5)so it's baffling me now. I thought this week would be good because nursery is quieter as the NEF only kids aren't in, so they can give William more attention and make sure he gets to the toilet. He knows I couldn't care less if he wees on the floor, we've got loads of pants and a washing machine (I'm definitely more chilled about that than I was with DD). So, any ideas how to make going to the toilet more appealing than wearing a nappy will be gratefully received Grin

Loopymumsy · 23/02/2011 21:46

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Loopymumsy · 23/02/2011 21:48

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febes · 23/02/2011 21:50

Hi no time to catch up on the thread but wanted to let you know we are fine and all my family and friends are fine. The earthquake was horrendous and it is devastating out there. We are the lucky ones with power restored quickly and water on. We lost lots of stuff but our house is structurally fine.

Loopymumsy · 24/02/2011 07:26

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Greedygirl · 24/02/2011 07:43

Hi all

Febes - glad you and all your family and friends are OK. LOM reminded me the other day that you were in Christchurch. Can't imagine what it must be like. Let us know how you go on if you get the chance.

Jetgirl - glad you had a good break with your DH, makes all the difference I find! As for the potty training I am sorry but I really am in no position to be dispensing advice! I have been bribing Adam with chocoloate coins and am now trying to wean him off! And I am a terrible nag. I am quite relieved when he has his bath and we put his night time nappy on! Wine!

LOM - lol I think that tops anything we have had to deal with!

Honestly, 50% of my brain power is taken up with potty training at the moment, it is a very sad state of affairs.

OP posts:
jetgirl · 24/02/2011 07:58

Febes - so pleased to hear that you're ok x

Loopy - not even chocolate bribery is working! He's just so lazy he cba to use a toilet. Grrrr!

RGPargy · 25/02/2011 22:58

Hello!!

:o

jetgirl · 26/02/2011 09:53

Hello RG! Long time no see Smile

I'm still in bed, dh has given me a lie-in today. Had a weird couple of days. Dad is on hospital having had another ms relapse (second this year), a small plus point is that he's been transferred from the hospital in his town, to the hospital here in Southampton which is 10 mins walk from here and where my mum works. Yesterday I found out a dear friend has a tumour on her thymus and is having surgery in a couple of weeks Sad

RGPargy · 27/02/2011 22:20

Hi everyone!

Finally had the chance to briefly catch up.

Febes - so glad you are all ok. What a relief. Must be awful out there.

LOM - love the toilet story! :o How's Patch?

Loopy - how's the pg coming along? All going well I hope?

Jet - Glad you had i lie in today. I also had a lie in as DD was at Nanna's last night. DP and I woke up around 10am so i made us a cup of tea and we carried on laying in bed until we finally dragged our lazy arses out of it at about 12.30pm. It was heaven!! :o Brew Sorry to hear about your dad but at least he will be very close to you. That must be a bit of a relief! Sorry to hear about your friend. Where abouts in teh body is a thymus? Confused

Nothing to report here really. DD is an absolute joy and is a real joy to have around (most of the time) Wink. She's just recently started to draw faces on her blackboard, which is quite sweet. She draws a round circle with two eyes and a nose, which always ends up slap bang in the middle of the eyes. Quite sweet. I've been doing a few flash cards with her and she has learnt a couple of words, although i suspect it's mostly guess work, with the exception of the word "milk" which she always gets right. Clever girl! :o

I am very lucky in that she is now completely toilet trained and can hang on for as long as necessary if we are caught out somewhere. She's mostly dry at night too, although we are still using a pull up at night. I'd say there is between 5-10 nights a month where she has had a wee in her pull up during the night so we are going to ditch them altogether very soon. Yikes!

I'm off on my fitness weekender again on Friday 4th March. I am very excited about it and will be interested to see how much my fitness has improved since my last fitness trip (if at all!). I like to think i am reasonably fit but when you see some of the girls there, it makes you realise that you're not as thick as you might think!!

Hope you are all well, anyway.

Catch you all later! N'night!! :o

jetgirl · 28/02/2011 22:58

The thymus is in the chest cavity, near the top (I'll admit I had to google it!) Dad is not at all well, and the docs just can't work it out. His temp and bp are down, which is good. He's had 2 mri scans, 1 lumbar puncture and another one tomorrow and has been given a feeding tube. It was pretty awful seeing him so helpless when I visited Sad It is a bit like an episode of House, with the docs trying to work it out though Grin

I have been drawn into a potty training thread with an awful, judgmental poster who has declared any 3 year olds not potty trained as not normal and questioning our parenting Hmm she seemed to have missed my comment about when my dd was potty-trained so I have decided to step away for today!

jetgirl · 28/02/2011 22:59

Meant to say, RG, your dd sounds fabulous Grin

Loopymumsy · 02/03/2011 06:57

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jetgirl · 05/03/2011 11:57

No change with my dad. It really doesn't look good. 2 MRIs, 2 lumnar punctures, CT and a brain biopsy and they still don't know what it is so they can only treat the symptoms, not the cause. It's all a bit shit really Sad

littleoldme · 06/03/2011 20:28

Hi everyone. I haven't quite had time to catch up with everything so sorry If I miss anything important.

Jet - That's tough news about your Dad. It must be hard for you all. I hope the Doctors figure out what is wrong soon. Bigs hugs X

Loopy - Glad the jeans have come in handy. I wore the H and M ones all the time. I've also got a TENS machine. It's fab and you are welcome to it if you like.
Glad the pg is going well.

Febes - So glad that you and the family are safe. It must have been very scary.

All well here. Patch is doing really and he's such a cutie. Tom has been ill on and off since Christmas which is making the potty training hard work. He's getting there though. He's fine with wee and tends to poo in the bathroom but rarely in the loo Hmm.

jetgirl · 08/03/2011 23:14

lom - sounds like you're making good progress with the potty training, well done Tom!

Dad appears to be making very slight progress. He's still on an NG tube, monitoring bp and temp constantly and lots of steroids, antibiotics and paracetomol. In a few days they hope to assess his swallow reflex and hopefully he may be able to have some food. He opened his eyes when I visited today, and said hello. I can make it from my front door to his hospital bed in 9 mins on foot - it's my race for life training!

I took William to mini gym yesterday; a sort of structured soft play group. He loved it, so we're going to sign up for the rest of the term. DD's godmother actually runs the business, so it's nice to catch up with her too.

Hope everyone's getting to enjoy some sunshine Smile

jetgirl · 09/03/2011 20:32

Dad's condition is untreatable Sad can't stop crying, and at some point I have to tell the kids. How?

Loopymumsy · 10/03/2011 10:07

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MarniesMummy · 12/03/2011 00:16

Jetgirl - so sorry to hear your news. Is it possible to not tell them for a while to allow yourself time to adjust to the information? It'll give your chldren a few more 'care free' days.
I don't know, just a thought.

Loopymumsy · 17/03/2011 06:51

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Greedygirl · 18/03/2011 20:28

Hi all

Jet - so sorry to hear about your Dad. How are things? Thinking of you. x

OP posts:
Loopymumsy · 20/03/2011 09:51

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jetgirl · 21/03/2011 17:39

Hi all. It's such an amazing feeling to know that people you've never met have you in their thoughts, thank you.

Dad is going through a good phase at the moment, the next few months are likely to be a bit rollercoaster. His symptoms are alleviated and he has had a few meals, though is on a feeding tube much of the time. When I visited him yesterday he was sitting up, which is amazing, and able to hold a conversation. They're hoping to move him into the rehabilitation house soon, to work on his muscle tone, which is pretty shot.

I took DD to visit him on Friday as he had been looking good all week, but was not in a good way, so she was a little upset by it all. Dad wasn't really aware she was there and she thought he was ignoring her Sad I cannot praise enough the amazing staff on the ward.

The weather has been gorgeous here, I took the kids on a picnic today- DD had an inset day. William was not amused by the dog who stole some of our food!

Loopy, how's the pg going? Can't be long now!