Jan 09: New thread, new babies, new year...our tiny newborns turn two and are full of birthday cheer....

[hackneyzoo]

Hope no one minds....I took an executive decision

I don't think my two would sleep well in the car, they usually wake a lot. I'd also struggle to stay awake whilst driving such a long distance up to Montrose which is near Aberdeen.

Fair enough. We share the drive and take a flask of coffee, but I wouldn't pretend it's fun!

GA, sorry I managed to skip your post somehow.. hope you are feeling better. Love the coincidence of the lighthouse picture.

I did think about driving at night a few times but it's 8.5 hrs without stopping to get there. Of course with stopping it's a bit longer. Still oscilating (sp?) about car or train though. Pros and cons to both for sure. GA has a point though about the carriage being a confined space. ExH also has an ipad and can play dora etc on it for them.

Going to climb into bed, completely shattered and have a cold. It's not too bad, mainly sand paper throat and runny nose. But it's making me even more tired than usual

The more I think about it, the more I would do train too, unless you can stop somewhere overnight. I love travelling by train and I think it's a great idea to instil that in kids early.

Hope you feel better soon. Definitely get rocking on the honey and lemon as it really does help you! I've got an odd cold that is more like night sweats and not being able to taste anything, but no snot or other symptoms. Where is spring for heavens sake???!

Tea can you take a sleeper train and do it at night? at least with train they have space to run around and stretch their legs. you just need a pile of activities up your sleeve and to reserve seats with a table! my dcs love it...it's not exactly all that relaxing for us though. We did some pretty long journeys across france and spain last summer and it was about as ok as it could be with 2 lively small children.

seriously consider flying though. i lived in aberdeen many many moons ago and used to fly from stansted, it was really quick and easy, at the time lots cheaper than thhe train too and fun for dcs.

feeling under the weather, have a tummy bug...this is the house of plague!

sleeper train Are pils paying? you could get them to fork out in the interest of the children

sorry to hear you are feeling down dog. You have such a lot on your plate and you do so well. Have you got anyone who can take the kids for a weekend so you can both have a break?

I'm really into the paul mckenna I can make you thin book at the mo. Have you had a look at the I can make you happy one? It sounds really trite but I think his stuff does guide you to reasses is a really positive way.

Feel free to talk it out here.. that's what we are for .

Dog- welcome to come and stay here for a weekend y'know

Nice walks aplenty and also the odd bottle of wine???

Really hope its nothing too bad.

Stripey- sorry for your news too.

Gotart- Enjoy La Boheme tonight hope you are well enough. I Heart it very much, DH and I saw it on honeymoon in Italy at the open-air opera in Verona. Was just magical

Tea- I think the train sounds your best option, just deffo take some DVD/laptop thing if you can (beg/steal/borrow from a friend?)
We went to the Bristol Aquqrium on friday and it was fantastic, the kids loved the Octopus. Glad you guys enjoyed the London one

HKZ/london people? We will be at NHM about 10am on saturday if anyone fancied meeting for a few hours or plan to spend sunday morning on the southbank if thats easier? Anyhow, DD has a MASSIVE list of stuff she wants to see, inspired by M.Sasek's 'This is London' picture-book that DH's best mate thoughtfully sent her. She took it to school today and basically gave all the other children a lesson on London this afternoon(what sort of a geeky-teacher child have I spawned?)

Hi to Tink and 120 too, you guys sound a lot happier recently. Must be spring in the air!

Sorry for quick fly-by. Things manic over half-term (Although did get to see the lovely MissJ, N and Isis bump at Slimbridge which was fab) and now back to work with a large dose of exam fever from the pupils. Parents evenings and reports galore over next few weeks too...............grrrr!

Good news is I have 14lbs since starting my new regime at start of feb, it is hard though and on tuesday I will have done SIX classes in seven days. Started Zumba and Capoeira classes and going to the scarily named 'boot camp' on a wednesday. Mostly eating whatever I like too which is fab, although my appetite seems much less recently which is odd.

lost 14lbs by the way, imagine if I had gained it doing exercise

Sleeper train looks amazing and it goes from Watford junction to Montrose. On the way back though it doesn't stop at Watford and you need to change half way through the night and then it goes into London instead and is therefore more costly and more of a faff Boo! Also the cabins only sleep 2 people, bit of a squeeze with 4 of us? Am I missing something?

Hkz ug @ tummy bug hope u feel better soon
Dog soz u r feeling low horrid being really tired
I am feeling a lot happier at month
Had a gd day

DOG - sorry you're feeling pants. Entirely justified with 4 kids and one a refluxy chap. ((hugs)) your way.

Pat - doesn't muscle weigh more than fat? So you're doing amazingly. Just reading about all your fitness classes is making me exhausted

about Saturday but I'm not sure I can cope with 2 DCs alone commuting into London and ExH is away again with his beau.

Off to bed as I'm shattered. Still getting sniped on ebay all the time as my maximum bid on auction sniper isn't enough Gah!

Dog- I am serious you know, and we are only about 3 hours from you, which sounds a lot but really cornwall is quite a while from anywhere!!! Failing that we could have a piss-up/travel lodge in Bristol and you could train it up...............Open it up to others too, whose interested, hmm, hmm?

Superb effort at Slimming World, well done! Its must be great as a freind of mine started 3 weeks ago and she has lost 11lb already. I must say I prefer the eating what I like and doing shedloads of exercise at the moment, just got loads of energy and it feels good.........but the novelty may wear off and I'll be back counting calories no doubt!

Tea- bummer about weekend. Don't worry, DD's list of things is long enough to cover many weekends so no doubt we'll be back in the summer and we can all meet in a park or something
I couldn't get a handle on the ebay thing either, I am having an enforced break at the moment, will start again when looking for DD's birthday.

Hello all. I haven't gone awol, but I haven't read either so can't really say anything sensible.

Mega busy and totally snowed under, but still sort of lurking and certainly not gone for good!!!

Ok, have read more...

Huge hugs to DOG. Take a break, do it! Why on earth not? We would do it if we didn't have kids, so I'm all for a bit of 'me time'. It's a human need as far as I'm concerned.
Many congrats on loosing all that weight. To you too Pat. Where do you get the motivation????

Tea this has probably been asked, but can you fly?

Stripey - hope you are ok.

I think with the amount of excess luggage we'd have, flying would be a pain tbh. HKZ did mention it. Also the nearest airport to Montrose is a while away, FIL would have to collect us. Same sort of issues as trains on him having to buy car seats etc though. I think we may end up driving as FIL has said their car isn't bg enough for MIL, FIL, ExH, 2 DCs and me and he says we'll need the extra car. He mentioned it yesterday. I'm hoping we can somehow take the sleeper train though and work round the car issue

Hmmm. Sounds hard either way. I'd fly and bring the car seats, you can usually bring them free

Approach it like going o a package holiday Few changes of clothes and buy everything else whilst you're there...and you won't be laden down with sun block I guess .
Can't say I'd worry about a car when there, surely a taxi could take the extra adults where they need to go? Or a hire car for couple of days if he's wanting to go on a jaunt?

Another opton would be to drive, break the journey, stay in a travel lodge or at a friends on the way up? We have driven to North Yorks to Cornwall with the gals, dd1 was 4 and dd2 was 6 months. We had protable dvd player and lots of travel sick medicine. I think that took 8 hours, with couple of breaks. Then we had to put a tent up. What a larf
Actually it went fairly well, although the H-bomb cried nearly all the time. But that what normal then, she cried anyway

My god! Who swapped DD with this moody cow of a child I have this morning. She woke at 5, completely unusual, and wouldn't go back to sleep. DH left for work at 6 to do inventory and he came back into the bedroom to say she was just sitting in her bed and should he bring her in here. I said fine, but then she melted down when she heard him leaving and has been whiny and crying on and off, mostly on, for the last 3 hours. I'm going a wee bit crazy. She's colouring right now, so a bit of a reprieve, which is why I'm here.

Last night was fun. We left with no hassles, went to a nice little sushi place downtown, then over to another little cocktail bar for a drink, where we ended up knowing the bartender from a Boxing Day party we went to, and he bought our drinks, then headed to the opera with just enough time to use the washroom and sit. I must say, I really thought it was rather a boring opera. By the end, I was thinking, good god Mimi, just die already. Its not the actors so much as the opera itself. No wonder it took a 100 years for it to get some recognition. There wasn't any big song that sent shivers through me. It was the first time that I wanted to leave. We actually noticed a handful of people had, including the couple next to us. Just a rather boring one. The lead female completely out sung the others though, not well balanced. But otherwise they were all fine... just the opera itself. DH and I had a nice night out though and didn't worry about DD at all... he was more worried for the babysitter in case DD acted up, but she was a doll... pizza and ice cream goes a long way.

Dog Yes darling, you need to get away, even just over night. You could rent a B&B for a weekend just to recharge that is nearby. I went to Vancouver for two nights when I was feeling overtaken by everything and it did a world of good. Happy, content mummy, happy, content family. There's a commercial here where the announcer says, "What makes a happy mommy?... A happy baby" and it has something to do with formula. When I hear it, I think, I stiff drink and ALL the kids in bed makes for a happy mommy.

Tea You'd better drive up but spend the night somewhere. That's definitely a long drive with two little ones.

Oh no GA! What a shame it was a crap show, but sounds like a fab night all in all.
I loved the version we saw but maybe I was overawed by the atmosphere and the spectacle of the whole thing. The beginning of Act 2 I think with the street scene was just fabulous when we saw it, stiltwalkers, fire-eaters and all that. We also had these mini candles to light and hold aloft and it was all pretty romantic. However, I have since watched versions on the telly which were a little flat and I agree, no real 'stand-out' songs.

Hi Tree- good to hear from you

Manic day at work today, meeting afterwards about the school becoming an academy which was more like a lecture than a consultation. Just took all my anger out at Body Combat, which was great. Quite hard work and did look alittle stupid at times, but hey-ho, I'll be better next week!

Book marking

Had gd day
Bought dd2 shoes
Myself a new bag

Pat The one you saw sounds amazing. Fire-eaters even!

Tink New bag, always lovely to hear. The only things that bring me pleasure shopping for is art, shoes and handbags, clear by my lack luster wardrobe.

Hey Tink - good to hear you are shopping

Hi Pat

GotArt - do you knw I can enjoy most things, but not ever ever opera or jazz? I find both really distracting and they make my brain feel fuddled Glad you had a good evening with lovely man though.

I started a small teaching course last night, the PETALS one. It shoudl be well within my comfort zone, so hope I'm not restless in the class.It's 2.5hrs Having said that, it might not be and I might be pants, as always for me the theory comes easily but the practical is harder.
It was soooooo nice to sit in a room with people I didn't know who do not want anything from me. Nice to have the chance to meet some new people, was sat betweeen an artist and an accountant. Lovely. Just to have something else to talk about! Other than breastfeeding, contractions, toddlers and school.

So that's me. Knackered though, not sure about this ad lark at all. Have some side effects and only slightly more energy and slightly less foggyness. We'll see.

Nice on the class tree. Between and artist and an accountant... interesting. lol

Off to our first dance class. Hopefully that will put DD in a better mood today. She started off fine but when I started making breakfast, she started getting all whiny again and tantrumy. The weather is, shocking, absolutely still miserable. When will spring come. The rest of Canada is laughing at Victoria because we aren't getting the weather we are known for, beautiful, spring in February.