Dec 08 - tears, tantrums, giggles and piddles - and that's just the mums!

[traceface]

Or maybe piddling whilst giggling is just me?
It's so sunny here I feel Spring has sprung - where's that daffodil emoticon gone? Had a friend round this morning for a natter and cake - muchos snot and tears but all good. Think I might go for a little bike ride now to blow the cobwebs away.
And no vag - not a chance!
rubs don't you dare spend all your time tweeting - your first loyalty is here!

that was such a smug and self centred sounding post - excuse my behaviour won't you all.

Evening everyone, I?ve had the loveliest news today ? my friend?s baby who had 3 holes in her heart repaired just last Friday has come home from hospital today . I can?t decide whether the doctors or the little one is the more amazing, but hopefully that is her heart mended and perfect for the rest of her long life. I?m blubbing away with happiness

Welcome Trudy, lovely to ?meet? you. I thought the same as LadyT, that your DD must be the oldest of our older siblings ? therefore we expect you to have all the answers on perfect parenting as you?ve been there and seen it already!

Effie, I second, third and fourth everyone?s wise words. I am in no doubt that we all have the capacity to break our little ones, but I also strongly hope believe that we have an even greater capacity to love them and that this will override any little breakages

How has potty training gone today Beans? I hope your absence is a sign that it?s so successful that you?ve been enjoying a day out, and not that you?re chained to the mop. And how about your DS Deids?

Happy anniversary Rubes. Your mini meet up photos on FB are gorgeous, especially the 2 baby girls

Urbs I hope all goes well for you DSIL tomorrow. Is it her first? And is this the baby that is due the same time that yours would have been? If so, how are you?

To lower the tone, dramatically, on the nappy talk (it?s Jump?s fault, she mentioned her DDs commentary on nappies and I?m just continuing the theme) DD has taken to saying ?ha ha, it?s a big pooey?, every time I open her nappy, regardless of what is in there. The other day we went through this charade and it was just a wet nappy, so I responded ?no pooey?s there, it?s just wet? and I got the response ?oh, that?s a bit of a problem mummy?

LadyT have a great time with Baz tomorrow

How?s the pub Vaj? Do they serve cocktails there?

Happy anniversary Rubes, how marvellous to find the roses on the doorstep! Hope you've had a spot of something lovely tonight.

JJ, I meant to say re: The Rage - two littles can fray the nerves something rotten, esp on minimal sleep. Please don't be hard on yourself. You aren't an automaton.

Goodnight lovely ladies.

Happy anniversary Rubes, how marvellous to find the roses on the doorstep! Hope you've had a spot of something lovely tonight.

JJ, I meant to say re: The Rage - two littles can fray the nerves something rotten, esp on minimal sleep. Please don't be hard on yourself. You aren't an automaton.

Goodnight lovely ladies.

Sorry ZJ, I hadn't refreshed and so missed your post. That is smasho about your friend's nipper. And that's funny about your DD. It's a great age, this, despite the tantrums.

Can't get to sleep as I am getting annoyed thinking about my MIL. I never did bore you with the contretemps from the other week, and she is coming to stay on Friday for a couple of days and I feel all grumpy about it. I should be more gracious, sigh.

Eep, I have all the same concerns about breaking our LOs and have huge angst about my abilities or otherwise to parent DD as I'd like, so no way do I have all the answers! I also have 17 and 18 yo skids who live with us, which is making me feel like a combination of Methuselah and the Oracle. Having said that, at least no-one's mistaken me for DH's mum

LadyT we live near Hereford, hence my noticing your comment about visiting DH's godmother there. Do you live anywhere near? We're not military, we've just washed up here.

It's hideously early, just gone 7am, and the children are already tucking into last night's leftover chips a nutritious breakfast - I have early risers, oh lucky lucky me. I hope everyone who's struggling atm has a good day. We're down the skids today as they both work on a Saturday, and DD is off to a friend's this morning then having a different friend over here for a sleepover, which means a morning spent answering M's reepated q "where's P gone?" then spending the afternoon getting him to leave P and her friend in peace An age gap of nearly seven years has its its down side, but generally DD is very patient and tolerant with M, which is more than I am

Trudy: mine were awake at 6. Yawn. I have left them downstairs with breakfast and telly and retreated back to bed. We've decided on no morning telly on weekdays, so it's enough of a treat to keep them quiet .

Max is a Maximilian but we never use it - he's Max,
Maxie or Maximo. Or Pongo.

DH has challenged me to a game of phone Trivial Pursuit so better go

Morning all,

Hello Trudy, lovely to have you join us.

Well yesterday was day 1 of Operation Potty, on the whole a good day but he was bare-bummed all day pretty much. Today the pants are on, so we'll see if he is still successful. I'm off to the Drs with himina bit, so that will be our first outing...hopefully quick as I'm dreading the accidents!

Urbs Poor SIL. I'll send a prayer up on her behalf.

Lady T do share the MIL tales, if nothing else it helps WG feel better!

Good luck at the docs, DB. We have officially decided to leave the potty training with DD1 for a while. Yes, will be boring you about the MIL thing in the next day or two...though it's really nothing and really boils down to the fact that she gets on my nerves...I mean she is a pain, but if I am totally honest I am probably being rather intolerant....

Sorry Trudy, I missed your second post when I was looking at my BlackBerry in bed. I live in West Oxfordshire so Hereford isn't too far (but not really too close either, if you know what I mean). Worcester is closer. I know Hereford a bit though. Do you like it?

Morning all, well sadly I didn't get to find out if the pub does cocktails as 1.5 hours and 2 lovely Belgium beers into our evening DS2 kicked off. Our lovely babysitter tried to settle him but he was not amused. So my evening was cut short but the small time I had was fun. It was a couple we have met since being here who are also Expats but like us have put their kids into a local as opposed to international school and have also bought a house here and don't work for one of the big expat employing oil companies. They are a really easy couple to get along with and it was so nice to be able to have a nice flowing conversation with everyone. We are planning to go camping all together with them and another expat family, so that will be fun, its either this coming weekend or the next, no evenings cut short!

Lady please tell your MIL woes, pretty please.

DS2 is just going down for his nap now and just as he was going off I smelt that he had done a nasty stinks poo, but he flatly refused to let me change him. He said he wanted his poey nappy! So who am I to deny him, I'm not in the mood for a poey nappy fight so he'll just have to sleep in it. Naughty veggiemummy.

Trudy have you been lurking for a while, your remark about being mistaken for DHs mum reminded me of a certain "young" Dwarf we have on this thread. What's it like having older sibs, do they babysit a lot?

Hi All

Just running on to say good luck to Urbane's SiL. As others have said, 34 weeks is pretty good, especially if they have had time to give steroids. And with regard to the pre-eclampsia it should resolve itself very quickly after the birth. Mine did.

And a quick hello to Trudi. Lovely to "see" new "faces". My DD2 likes to play with her bottom way too much as well. In fact so does my DD1 and she is 4 going on 5...

Rubes, I think we have the same wedding anniversary! Did we notice that before? We are meant to be going out for a special dinner tonight except I think a curry I had two nights ago has given me a stomach ulcer or something. It hurts. Maybe its the gut rot your last take away gave you.

Quick TMI question. Anyone have a copper coil? I think I am going to get one fitted. Do they make periods horribly heavy? I hope not as they are my last resort: I can't do hormonal contraception, I'm not ready to go for a permanent option and condoms just aren't fun. Hmmmm.

Good luck with day two of operation potty Deids. I have to admit that DD2 is now dry at night as well as in the day so we are a nappy free household for the first time in 4.75 years. I can hardly believe it! The next nappy I change may be my grandchild's.

Aarghhh its a disaster today. Pants are just confusing him he's weeing everywhere...I think I might get the nappies out and try again in a monthor so....

Oh no DB, you were doing so well. I am definitely no potty guru but could you put him in slightly larger undies? The one thing about DS1 with his long and stressful TT was that he could always pull down his undies. I think it was because on a friends advice I got him a size bigger boxer short so he could hold the legs part at the seem and pull then down easily. Unfortunately sometime if he had a poo accident there would be...erm...a certain amount of fall out but it did help with the getting them off himself.

No, not lurking but I did try to read through the whole of this thread before posting and was duly horrified at the daft woman with her rude comments about being LO's grandma! I turned 40 in January so fully understand oh-god-I-look-like-an-old-hag-today paranoia - having a baby at almost-38 has been so much more tiring, not to mention ageing, than when I had DD at 31. M still wakes in the night several times a week >sigh<

Lady I do quite like Hereford but don't get in very often. We live in the sticks and spend our lives in the car

Arti I had a copper coil in the brief interval between getting married and DH changing his mind about a second child It was my second coil. I'd had the first removed as threads really bugged me and DH could feel them sometimes . I tried the mini-pill after that but didn't get on with it and really hoped I was pregnant had a scare, so "we" went back to the coil, for about six months. We need to sort contraception again as our family is very definitely complete now, but we keep going round in circles. We're being terribly boring grown up about the whole thing and are going to the Family Planning Clinic for advice - get us. Sorry, should have added I don't remember my periods being really heavy but then I have always been incredibly lucky with them and never had problems.

Deidre We had the same problem but it just took Max a couple of days to get used to having pants and trousers on. I really would persevere - once we got over that first couple of days things got dramatically better.

How was the Drs, Deids, is there a problem with his tonsils? Being a wimp on TT, I have nothing helpful to say, but wonder if it's like sleep training when day is the worst? Good luck

Vaj was DS2 alright? Just noisy, or was he poorly? Camping sounds fun, especially with a gang of you. I am trying to convince DH we should go glamping (I'm not made of stern enough stuff for real camping) but he remains unconvinced. I suspect it will be a stalemate until I find somewhere with a telly, but that is one of the reasons why it appeals to me

Happy anniversary Arti, I hope you do get to enjoy a meal out

Trudy I also live in the sticks, but in Yorkshire, and also blow a fortune on diesel, but I wouldn't want to change where I live so that is the compromise I make. Do your skids drive, or do you and DH have to taxi them everywhere? Lack of transport when I was their age was the bain of my life, and my parents too I should think

ZJ transport is quite a hot topic in our house. Both skids are learning to drive, but SS is making a real drawn out hash of the whole thing whereas SD is getting on with it and her driving instructor is talking about booking her test and so on. I won't bore you with the details and I know this won't make sense without the details, but atm DH is driving SS to work (SS dropped out of A levels and has a p/t job) but the minute SD passes her test DH will stop giving lifts and SS will have to make other arrangements. These could, amazingly, include actually taking and passing his driving test SS makes the average sloth look motivated and vigorous, but that's a whole other mare's nest! I agree about not wanting to live anywhere else, I love being a bumpkin

DS has enlarged tonsils and probably adanoids but they should shrink ashe gets olderso i have to just keepmy eye on them. He was more concerned by his snoring and wanted to know if he stopped breathing when sleeping/snoring. I said I had no idea as he sleeps in his own room. He suggested i go and moniter him in the night.

This afts TT has gone better than this morning but undies defo confusing him. I'll keep going another couple of days and see how we get on....needless to say I have the chilling already it has been a long day

Crikey DB how does the GP expect you to do that. If he is concerned that he has sleep apnoea there are ways to monitor it with equipment either in hospital or at home. Is he sleepy or extra grumpy during that day that you have noticed?

ZJ DS2 often wakes around 10.30 with what we think are nightmares he settles back to sleep if one of us pops in to give him a quick pat, a cuddle at the most. Unfortunately, if its not us that pops in he wakes and roars. So that's what happened last night. He did resettle after I got home but by then it was 11 and we couldn't really keep our 16 year old babysitter much beyond 11.30 so no point going back out.

We bought 2, 2 man kayaks today, cost us a small fortune with paddles and life vests, but we figured with the beach so close and all the waterways here it would be a fun family activity. Cycling is good fun but generally the boys are a bit passive except on short trips for DS1, but on a boat on the water, they would have a ball.

Urbs, thinking of your DSIL, hope they meet their little bub soon. They are pretty hot on giving the premmies BM, even if it has to be milk bank BM, as it reduces the chance of necrotising enterocolotis (sp). The big difficulty will be swapping over to straight from the boob, if that is how she is wanting to feed. if she gets decent support though she should be fine.

Writing from our farm holiday home in the chilterns where we're staying for 5 nights. T just off to sleep after being weirded out by not being in a cot for the first time. Could be a short night but hey ho, at least we're somewhere different.

Deidre, T has the same re-tonsils and adenoids. at the idea of keeping your eye on them. Not easy! Sounds like DS has a plan though. And la la la la to all you TTers. Not. Going. There.

Hi trudy, welcome to our coven thread. Nice to have you here.

Urbane, thinking of you and SIL. Hope they are both ok. It must be such a worry but I'm sure they're in good hands.

arti will lurk on your coil responses. Need to consider contraception as really don't want any accidents but not sure about hormonal contraceptives either.
And happy anniversary to you and to Rubes. .

I think a couple of people asked about me and DP - well, we are both trying. It's hard when you are incompatible in many areas but still want it to work. But I feel somehow like we are getting somewhere.

Really quickly as I just skimmed back the last couple and it's late - just off phone to Mum as Mothering Sunday Aus / USA / NZ etc!

Arti, our anniv is the 6th May - happy anniv to you! I share the same anniv with Summer and hubby (hope you had a nice one SL) but didn't know you were 6th too?! or are you a day later / earlier?

Gotta go as knackered, but yay - dd slept through last night!! She's 9.5 months and although sometimes does 5 hours straight, last night she did 11pm-8am!!!!
Pleeeeeeese make it be permanent...... will report back, and also catch up so sorry for no personals.

How are the kidlets Jam? MIL thinks your ds's and the Summer-ettes are adorable after seeing pics oh and dh thinks you are supermum getting up making tea in the morn (shot self in foot) But I'm skating through at the moment as still milking the anniversary, but if this sleeping through continues I'm doomed and must get up and make coffee I fear as the guilt will set in when I can no longer bang on about broken nights sleep

Spot hope you are getting some rest on hols. Hope things get better with you and dp.... I'm still planning on a visit x

Just quickly zipping by and saw you have bought kayaks, Vag. Did you get the sit on top kind? We saw some out while walking with our LOs a few weekends ago and thought what a lovely idea it would be to buy a couple and paddle around the saltmarshes with one child in front of each. Let me know how you get on with them.

Must dash ... hopefully back later.

I'm not doing a catch up, I'm afraid, but just wanted to pop on v quickly to say that... A friend of mine came for a BBQ last night at 7.30. When they left at 1.30am, they had a new baby girl with them! She gave birth on our bedroom floor - labour for 2 hours 6 minutes.

Will tell all later!

xx

Beans omg!!! Bloody hell! Are they going to call her Beans?