FEB 2010 Tottering into our second year...!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

A few first birthdays left, then we're full tilt into walking/talking and a mountain of mischief

stan as we said before she'll bloom later than some of our LO. Don't worry.

BG love the pix of your DD2.

Glad it was Wednesday today as it means the weekend is getting closer even if I'll be by myself this weekend as DH is away with a few friends!

It's a bit early to write her off, Stangirl!! Give her a chance!

Love the tin-stacking, BG! And I'm so impressed with your DD's words. Apart from "mama" and "dada", DD points and babbles or shrieks to communicate.

scones....it's not a competition! OK, we love being proud mums and saying what new thing the LOs are up to, but there are no prizes for being first at anything, honest. I feel a bit bad for boasting on DD's behalf if it makes you feel bad

Ah, Shro, that's sad and an infuriating waste of money, I'm not surprised you're miffed about the shoes. I'm like PA in not hoarding stuff for sentimental reasons, but I totally understand it.

Ah, PA, the sleep thing is so tough. I sympathise hugely. Although DD is much better now, I still seldom get more than six hours myself (hence why I mentioned it the other day, it's such a rarity).

CS, I would swap the tower building for that fabulous sleeping!!! DD is so much better nowadays, but her sleep-throughs are still intermittent

Did anyone look at the thread about the most difficult stages of parenting? It's not very encouraging!!

DD doesn't even have the attention span for me to to read the 1 sentence on each page let alone the book. I normally get 2 pages and then get a new book shoved in my face

again no words here

I didn't speak properly until I was in school but I turned out OK.

Arrrrgh 40 mins of screaming and new screeching standing in her cot!!! She lays down on command but doesnt get shhh go to sleeeeep!!!
They play mummy up more dont they?!!

So sorry. Didn't mean to make anyone feel their LO is behind in any way! This is not a competition and every child is an individual and totally fine!! Honestly, I got so much of the 'doesn't she sit, crawl, walk etc' variety for dd1 that I was quite worried at the time... She's fine and can hop and jump and do things just as well as her peers who walked earlier. Sorry if I worried anyone . Was just a bit bemused that dd2 doesn't do bricks but stacks tins . Was meant just as a kind of lighthearted banter with IC's little architect .
Oh and Stan, give the girl a chance . You sound like my dh who said what a shame dd2 hasn't inherited his interest/talent in music like dd1 appears to have... . Told him to give her a chance, she's only just turned 1 .
There is ABSOLUTELY no way of telling at age 1 how intelligent a child is/will be in later life! I have a cousin who walked at 2 and spoke at 4 and is now a high flying scientist with a PhD.

LBH is it the time change confusing her? dd2 is still pretty cross about her new bed time and I have been a bit more lax about it the last few days. Other things I have tried with both of mine is to leave the light on in the hall and her door open so she had some light to go to sleep. Or let her look at books on her own for a bit and then try again to say it's sleep time now. Or if all fails, give calpol in the hope it's something causing pain that keeps her from sleeping.

Schrodinger I am completely with you on the shoes. I kept dd1's (and dd2 is wearing them at the moment ) and also dd1's that she has already outgrown. I would be quite upset to lose them . I have two little treasure boxes for the girls with bits and pieces in them, so I guess I am pretty sentimental.

Agree BG it amazes me at how different all our DCs are. I love sharing what DD is doing or not doing, not trying to show off, just nice to tell you guys as I know I wont be called a baby bore. (something I suspect I am)
Stan Your DD is a fab sleeper!!!!! Something I , the bass guitar playing will follow in good time

Aaah she has gone quiet at last. Now I can eat and then get ready for bed and fall asleep watching Midsomer Murders. (DP still not apeaking much. Havent had a kiss in over a week. I am feeling paranoid that people dont like me in real life...what is that about?!)

Hello all!
Been really busy lately and haven't had time to post.
DD is back to sleeping through although gets up at 6 am sharp, the old 5 am... which is a bit trying as I'm phasing out the morning feed so can't just stick her on the boob and go back to bed like I did before. I am keeping the evening feed. She gets SO excited about it, it's really cute. She shouts "boob" and leaps onto my chest with full gusto. Really funny!

I have to share with you what happened today. I took DD to our local library which was very nice as they have a pretty decent children's section with mini tables and chairs and sofas. DD was rocketing about having a whale of a time and chatting to all the other children who were trying to read . This really nice woman came in with a three year old DD and a nine month old DS. I chatted to her for a while about this and that, when her DD piped up that she needed to go to the loo. I offered to look after her DS, and she thanked me and took her DD off. Anyway ten minutes went by and I was busy entertaining her DS and reading to DD when the woman suddenly stormed in shouting that the loo visit had been a total nightmare because her daughter had had an accident (wet herself) and she couldn't take it anymore. She announced that they were going home, at which point her DD lay in the middle of the library carpet with no knickers on shouting "I'm NOT GOING HOME". The woman picked her up and dragged her kicking and screaming. The little boy and my DD looked a bit shell-shocked. He promptly fell forward and was lying sobbing on his front so I grabbed DD and went over to where he was to pick him up and give him a cuddle. The other mothers all looked appalled, and turned away and tbh I felt so sorry for her. She was obviously having such a bad time and everything was going horribly wrong. Anyway, she stuffed her sobbing DS into his pushchair, thanked me and walked out with her DD literally screaming the place down. My DD looked so confused, so I sat her down with some water and a biscuit and read her a book before leaving. Poor woman, it was awful.

Anyway, I will post more later... big wave to everyone... and yes, I agree this is not a competition and that all our LO will grow and develop in their own time. We are just giving them the best and happiest environment for them to do it in.

This is what happens to babies with an older sibling.... they may acquire wings

Abs oh dear sounds like she had one of those days...

Oh, the poor thing Abs, sounds like she had an end-of-the-tether moment. I suspect she's been having a drawn-out potty-training nightmare with her DD (and it wouldn't surprise me if her DS wasn't sleeping through too...) hence the scene. What a shame.

Ah, LBH, try not to do yourself down. Remember you've been having a tough time on and off ever since your DD was born and now your DP is giving you the freezing treatment, it's hardly surprising you are projecting negative reactions onto other people. You always sound lovely on here, I'd be very surprised if people really didn't like you in RL, I bet that's not the case at all.
Sorry you had a tough time settling your DD. I hate unsettled bedtimes, they are so stressful.

I think you turned out a good deal more than OK, PA

At least she hadn't been at the Red Bull, BG

I've missed you guys, you know? Flyingcloud yes, we are still in France. You seem really busy at work; I honestly take my hat off to you.

Our LO is fab; they say in France that the third child is 'l'enfant du plaisir'. Well of course all children are a pleasure, right? But I must say it is so fantastic to share that pleasure with the older siblings and it might be true that we are a little more relaxed about it all third time round. She's 14 months old now and sometimes starts to run instead of walking. We really have to keep an eye on her especially when in proximity of the kitchen draw full of knives. I'm still bf her, usually once in the evening, but I think she's teething again as her nose is running and she's generally more irritable and she wants more bf! Although I am still enjoying it I need to stop as I'm off - alone - to the UK in 9 days. Hmm what should I do?

Aside from the comforts of family life 2010 was a stodgy year for us: my DH was a victim of unfair dismissal after months of harassment at work which has resulted in a legal case. We also had another law suit concerning our house in Normandy which we were unable to put on the market. I say stodgy because both my DH and I like things to move in life and we really had to learn all about patience. Now after months of countless interviews and no job offers he has had several job offers all at the same time. Our court cases are reaching an end which means we have been able to put our house on the market and can now look for a new house to buy in the Loire Region where we now live. Yippee!!!! Jardins breathes a sigh of relief: things are moving again.

Have a lovely evening everyone. Love to you all.

jardins Now I definitely want a third

Sorry you've had a less than brilliant year, jardins, but glad to hear there's light at the end of the tunnel.

So if the third baby is "l'enfant du plaisir" what are the first two? Enfant terribles?

Hi all - just popping in while DS naps (today is a one-nap day as he got up at 7.20. I had insomnia and couldn't really get back to sleep after waking around 3.30. Typical).

Shro Argh - so sorry about the shoe.

IC Love the video! And was very moved by the understated and graceful way you wrote about your m/c.

BG The photo with the wings is the cutest thing.

I'm really happy today because my campaign to save the baby gym worked (well, to an extent) - they are keeping it open until the end of summer but then it seems that all children's services are going targeted-families-only. I went to a consultation meeting yesterday and there were enough people there who are keen to arrange things as volunteers so hopefully we'll still have places to go, just we'll be organising ourselves. It was dispiriting though - it's been great to have these things laid on for us, and it's bought the community closer together as it's open to everyone, and there's no stigma attached to people who go. I know some posters on mumsnet think Surestart centres aren't for them and that you get patronised when you go but that's never been my experience. We've always had great fun and made loads of friends.

DS got his first pair of pre-walkers the other day. He took four or five steps unaided across the cafe floor in Dulwich Park - I actually missed most of it (more interested in my soup) but another mum pointed it out to me so I went straight to the kids' shoe shop in the village and got him a cool pair of khaki courduroy baseball-shoes. He's got extremely wide feet (an H) - doesn't take after me at all.

He doesn't say much 'mama' 'dad' 'no' - and occasional one-offs (banana, I don't know, cat) that make us do a double take but then he never says them again so we're not sure if they were intentional or just sounded like real speech.

He's well into his pointing and saying 'eh'. Yesterday he wouldn't stop pointing at the mustard so eventually we gave him some, he ate it, made a face and then indicated he wanted more. The day before he did the same with a lime. Crazy boy.

BC That shop in Dulwich Village is nice...DD has some nice slippers from there!
I am very pleased that Maman JoJo Bebe has opened up a shop in Sevenoaks, my overdraft may take a hit. Some really beautiful pink gingham summer dresses in there. Cant wait to ditch the tights under jeans look on DD.

I am working hard from home today! My mum has put DD down for her lunch nap and she didnt even protest! Really is just me she puts up a fight with!
Nanny has taught her to put her hands on her head today, bless. Oh and she managed to unscrew my tub of vitamin E cream and eat some. Lovely.

IC I started reading the 'what's the trickiest stage' thread but got a bit that so many people really found some stages of parenting such a chore. I think each stage is a challenge and you have to adapt but so far I haven't had a tricky stage as such. Ask me again when I have two teenagers...

Bear Love your LO's interest in tasting things . The closest thing mine have done is to taste ice cream for the first time, pull a face, then ask for more...

PA Is your scan this week? Should be lovely to see the dc2 and find out how far along you actually are (I loved my scans... dd2 did somersaults on my first scan and they were convinced she was a boy because she was so active )

Just to clarify...it was DD who ate the E cream, not my mum!

BG I have to have a word with myself at times, when DD has feeding or sleep issues and I feel it is all one big challenge or depressed. I remind myself she is physically and mentally perfect.
I love DD more than anything in the world and am so glad I have her yet still cant let myself even think about going through any of this again with a second child. But I do think your are right, you do have to adapt. There are so many parents who have ill children and need constant medication or care, that is a real challenge.

LBH dd2 once posted my dental floss into a tub of cream...

And voila! Clean, moisturised teeth and gums!

scan is in a few hours that's my wobbly face

will let you know how it goes

Exciting PA

Was just thinking how any sense of privacy went right out the window once I had children... dd2 likes to stand at my side when I use the loo and pats my thigh encouragingly