November 09, new skills are fun - look what I can do now, Mum!

[DontWorryBaby]

New thread for our little handfuls!

New Forest is 3.5-4hrs hours away, but I am not adverse to a bit of travelling, as long as I have a)coffee b) a disney CD. I guessed okehampton would be too far for most - a perfect campsite, need to transport it somewhere else!

Been to the beach today with the kids, took DD in the kayak, which she loved, and Roo has a cool new little 'lifeguard' outfit and he absolutely loved playing in the little water pools, eating sand and sitting in holes dug for him. Slept all the way home and then went to bed without a fuss after stuffing his face and having a soak in the bath . I have a very red face now !

Hope everyone has had a great weekend and your babies (or not so babies!) are all well and happy x

New Forest is a 13 hour flight for me so a bit far looking forward to hearing about it though and seeing some pictures and maybe I will be around for the next one!

Coming home tomorrow, whoop whoop!

Morning Ladies,

Was thinking about you on the way in to work this morning and thought I'd pop in and say hi. :)

Will have a quick scan of the 19 pages and see what you're all up to.

Feel like my feet haven't touched the ground for a looong time...

It took me nearly all day! But I did it! :)
Short and sweet as am about to leave work for the day but:

Skorpion and Ursi Congratulations on the bumps! Great news, glad you seem to be doing well and it's been fun reading through you pregnancies in fast forward :) Ursi I hope your blood-worries get sorted though, not the kind of stress you need at the moment.

Katster I think I congratulated you over on fb, but still - well done!

DWB I keep expecting an update on fb any day now :) Hope you're fairly comfortable...

Ninja Happy ever after, you looked GORGEOUS and so happy!

Juicy and especially MsI you've had some horrible scary times with your little ones, hope it's all plain sailing from now on. Luckily they recover quickly, and the memories will fade.

Scarlotti Well done on your charity trip and glad to hear things are going better with your DH

I know I will have forgotten lots of important bits, but I try to stay up to date and in touch via fb too, so do forgive me.

(Also, looove the new emoticons... mine will have to be a )

Hi all

Brood yay! Lovely to see you back - have been keeping up with your move back home and have to say am quite envious thrilled it's all worked out for you all so well.

About to head to bed but just wanted to say a quick hi as keep lurking!

Quick poll - am I the only one now who's baby isn't walking yet?!?!? My back is about to split in two so I hope he hurries up... just progressed to walking a few steps if he holds my fingers so on the way I guess. I do now get lots of talking though and words strung together - I reckon he worked out talking was much more of a necessity in this house than walking!!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.

Hello ladies

Another lurker. No energy to post as C has been teething and plenty of bad nights to go with it!

Scarlotti Your poor back! C started to walk a few weeks a go. He didn't take long to get the hang of it once he started. Now he is running around and getting up to lots of mischief! I'm glad we got to nearly 17 months without the walking as its tiring me out running after him! Not many words from C but always has something to say.

I will be back to catch up over the weekend. Hope the sun is shining for you all.

Thanks Brood A is fine now and has recovered really well. One more check up on the 1st of june but she is fine.

Scarlotti mine is running about too, she was determined to keep up with her brother!

Had a good day getting ready for step-dad's 50th birthday bbq, but we didnt stay too long as A was tired which is fair enough as she had less than half an hours nap and has been brilliant all day. Both the kids have actually. Shame I didn't get to go on the bouncy castle a bit more though!!

Keep lurking here, too.

Hi Broodzilla! Lovely to see you drop in.

Scarlotti, Lucy has been running around for a few weeks now, but she doesn't say much. Well, she babbles a LOT, but not much of it makes sense. Just a few words. They must concentrate on the things they need first and, as you say, Ioan has competition at home, so probably needs to make himself understood more Your poor back, though...

Honestly, where does the time go... 23 weeks gone and every weekend comes (and sadly goes) shockingly fast. I think Katster said a while ago that other people's pregnancies go so much faster. I have to disagree, this one flashes by! Great news, though - I am only working until the end of July and then, maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll get to think about the coming baby. Oh, wait, I have to sort out a childminder for Lucy. And her bedroom needs doing. And I ought to look into more clients. Hmmm...

DWB and Ursi, thinking of you. I hardly ever go on FB so will wait to hear via MN from you.

WRT a meet up - would be great! I'm up for a weekend camping. I presume we're thinking whole families, DHs, DPs, the lot? DH cycles at the weekends so would need a bit of notice, but can be arranged. Haven't really got any dates we can't do (apart from 11-12 Jun when he's away), as no plans for the summer at all! 2 - 3 hr drive from Oxford no problem. We're actually going away this weekend to this site, will report next week.

Have a great weekend everybody! (I know it's a bit early, but hey...)

Ha, I just had a look at the map for the location of that campsite and it seems to be quite a distance... Where are we all, by the way? I know Bristol, Brighton, Oxford, but what about everybody else? Should we work out a bit of a common ground for this? xx

Annabelle's words are coming alog really well at the moment. most things I understand. She says "Shoes on!", "come in", "come on", 'playpen', 'prammie' ' 'nana' is used for all fruit. 'toto' for Toby. 'hello', 'byebye' 'cuggle' "wee-wee" is used for wee or when referring to the potty. "pop-on!!" is what she says when she wants Tiny Pop put on tv. lol. 'Din-dins' is dinner, "more!" and "all gone" also "there 'ee is!" (whether male or female) . Does anyone else get "mu-uum!" instead of mummy?

Well done Annabelle! I get ma-mma, but then so does DH . The funniest she does is 'Oh, dear!, which comes out as 'oh-deeeah!'. She seems to be doing a mix of Polish and English (both 'no' and 'nie' for 'no'), boo is shoe, she says moh for more (food), nah-nah-nah for drink. Her own funny language I suppose.

I have also noticed in the last couple of days that she'll grab at her nappy when she has done a poo. I'm not even thinking about potties yet!

Hello ladies :)

Been a while! At my parents for dinner, so thought I would pop by. Feel very out of the cycle!

Hope those of you who are expecting are well - its exciting :) Can't wait for photos, so hurry up

Bryn is a chatter box. Non-stop chattering. About half and half words vs babble. Lots of signing going on too. And the bugger is speedy!! He's very funny, wicked sense of humour already. Fantastic at being a toddler but oh so sweet most of the time to make up for it.

Just going to throw myself into the convo RE camping; may I join you? If its arranged, obviously. Sure I can find a local train station to most places.

I miss you ladies! FB updates just don't cut it. My contract on my bungalow has been renewed, so am thinking of getting a dongle, seeing as I'm going to be there for the forseeable future. My little place is lovely, the flowers are all out in bloom, Bryn has a paddling pool and sandpit in the back garden, and a prime location for bird spotting (he is obsessed with "ird"s). Oven still broken, but got my hob at least.

Really hope you and your munchkins are all well; hope to have some more time to catch up with you all soon. Preferably with lots of (another one here loving the new smilies).

Boobs. xx

Hello all, welcome back broodzilla and Sirboob

I am in England, woo hoo! Loving being back and catching up with friends and family. Still recovering from the jet which isn't helped with both the kids waking in the night! Millie is a chatterbox and seems to come out with new words every day although her favourite word is still no! Millie does the tugging at nappy thing when she has done a poo too, maybe we'll be talking about potty training on this thread soon!

Right, I need to catch up on some zzzzzz but will try and be back on soon...

juicy we have 'nana' for all fruit too! lots of words. my favourite's are his current one 'beeet' for beach, which is all water/rivers etc! also says 'badder badder badder' for 'faster' when he is on the swing! He also has this odd way of saying 'ts' for things he wants, like he says 'woowoots' for 'rooroo's' or 'mamats' or just points to things and says 'ts' 'ts' not sure what that is all about. He also says 'uck' 'uck' quite vehemently, and not sure what that means either!

Camping - i reckon all in, everyone who wants to come so DPs/DHs too, all the kids, the men likely needed for the 'ugg ugg' bit of campfires , I can do most areas. Agree Okehampton place not convenient for most, so happy to hear some other areas.

Roo is just soooooo happy it is unreal, i just feel so lucky with the children, they are extraordinarily well adjusted and happy it is great. He laughs all the time, oh and get this, B had 'Show and Tell' today at school and she took Roo in!!! It was so cute, and he had the attention of 30 4/5 year olds and they all loved it. He sat himself down in the circle with the other children, grinning and chatting while B cooed and gushed over her brother. so lovely!

Broodzilla and sirboob, lovely to hear from you, welcome back.
And welcome back to the UK, helips! I'm sure you will enjoy the time with friends and family.

words, Paula is quite a chatterbox and it is a really funny mixture of words that everyone can understand and some that only insider know as they have nothing to do with the actual word. We have just been to Austria, so she spent lots of time with DH and his side of the family. They have a different dialect to mine and she started to change some of the words, really amazing. And cute. So she is actually bilingual with our dialects with the odd English word. I really wonder how much English she actually understands.

Pavlov, thanks for your lovely story about your two children. It makes me feel much better about having two myself. In real life I only seem to meet people who tell me how much more difficult it is with two and it is really refreshing to hear some positive stories too. Thank you.

Pregnancywise I'm fine, those 10 days in holiday have been really relaxing as DH did most of the childcare.

Morning everyone

Delighted to announce the arrival of Luke on Tue 24th, my second baby to arrive on his due date! The labour was around 13hrs in total and v intense compared to first time round, a 36 hr marathon! Luke needing a feed so will pop on again shortly with more of an update x

DWB, how wonderful! Huge congratulations to the whole family! What well behaved children, both on time. Hope both boys are doing well and you recover quickly. All the best xx

DWB, congratulations! I'm so happy to hear that everything was fine and quick. I hope you all will soon get used to the new family size :)

DWB I wrote it on fb but congratulations again! they are both gorgeous boys. x

DWB huge congratulations!!

Phew, it's half term!

It's been manic here since Rosa got out of hospital, trying to get back into the swing of things. But now can relax a little bit, thank goodness. Thanks for all your kind thoughts, she is recovering really well.

So happy to hear DWB wonderful news. And two born on due date, that's unheard of! Can't wait to hear and see more of your little man.

Helips, hope you are enjoying your time back in the UK

Long time no see! Brood, I kind of gathered you were back home but I didn't realise you had made a permanent move there. I'm glad you're so happy.

Lurk lurk- have time to read, but hardly ever to post!
DWB congratulations! I love the name Luke, it was on our list for if H was a boy. Hope all is going well.
MsI hoorah for half term! You certainly deserve a holiday. I was thinking of you today as I had a kind of stand off at work over whether to work 4 or 5 days next year, but am staying at 4 as the 5th day made no sense financially, I would have been literally working to pay the nursery. Will be different next year when H gets free nursery days ( I hope- there's always time for those to be abolished!!)
We had Ofsted the other week and I was not home till 9pm all week- then, guess what? They didn't come in to a single lesson I taught, OR interview me about the literacy GRRRRR, though apparently they did flick through my folder of data etc.
words I love hearing about all the words- there was a lovely display in our library recently wheer everyone put the first words their babies had spoken- some were very random! H can now point to herself and say 'Hedy' which I never tire of, I just love it! She also says 'oh YEAH!' and 'Oh MAN!' and sings (eight million times a day) 'eeieeio'

DWB congratulations! so pleased for you, enjoy your two x

Not much to report from here, still pregnant :) but actually quite fit at the moment even though it is the end of the second trimester. Slowly we are starting to think about the changes we have to get done. Funnily enough I even have to get newborn clothes as I had everything from my sister last time round and as she is due about 7 or 8 weeks after me, this time I need to get my own stuff.

As we are currently mainly thinking about the sleeping solution, I was wondering how many of you/us are still co sleeping.
Paula starts the night in the cot next to us and usually wakes up once to come into our bed, this can be any time between 10 and 5. Sometimes, if I am not too tired but quick enough I manage to get her back to sleep in the cot, sometimes I wake up and she is always half way over in our bed (with her sleeping bag on).
Initially I wanted to get her used to a whole night in her bed, now I feel that I am unable to fight for it. Especially as the new arrival will disturb anything we have been doing before.

Due to the layout of our house (and our reluctance to move again), we have just decided to keep our bedroom as a family bedroom, hopefully each in his/her own bed, at least parts of the night. And maybe we'll put a mattrass in the front room so that I could still move out with the baby if we go through rough times (teething,...).
But this way, we'll still have that one room for office, laundry, storage...
I'm also quite happy with the idea of all 4 in one room - I certainly didn't picture myself in this situation a couple of years ago

Anyway, I hope everyone if enjoying the bank holiday weekend.

ursi my BIL still has a family room. His eldest is 9 now and his youngest is 4. They have their own beds, but all prefer to sleep in the same room. When it was just them and their eldest, they all shared a bed til number 2 came along, when eldest was 5. then she went into her own bed next to them, and DS shared their bed. Then he moved into a cot with open side next to bed on the other side of them to DD, and then into his own bed.

They have the space for their own rooms, it is just how it ended up and how they prefer it. The kids do have their own room, just won't sleep in there. And they all sleep til late at weekends so does not mean they get up really early, they go to bed on their own without the parents having to sleep with them.

SIL is chinese so I guess it is partly her culture that started it, but BIL is not chinese and he prefers it this way too now.