March 2010 - Babies: "Climbing like an evil genius". Mummies: "Avoiding the Shred DVD"

[Arcadie]

Welcome to those with a March 2010.
Happy Easter from me....
Unwrap it quick!..

Oh, it's a new thread. I was hoping for chocolate.

Siamese thanks for asking, but everything is calm in Portugal. In fact, the earthquake in Spain was relatively close to where we stayed during the weekend

x

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

Just had a phone call from DH - he has been made redundant from the end of the academic year :(

Oh fliss :( am I right he is a specialist teacher? Could he supply or do another subject to see you through?
Did you get any new mindees sign up? It's so difficult isnt it - barely anyone is finding it easy right now. Hopefully something good will come out of it in the end ( my way of seeing shitty times through)

He's secondary so yes, specialist, but can teach - and has taught in his current job - pretty much anything, from Art to Music to Maths. It's just a shock, everyone else found out this morning, he called just before dinner to say he was safe and then called me back to say he was seeing the Head this pm :( Was confirmed at 2.30pm.

Bugger.

New mindee is starting in December, and DH should get paid until the end of September but we're not managing financially as it is.

I'd be really grateful if none of you lovely, lovely people mention this on FB atm - we've not told many RL people that redundancy was even a possiblity (ie his family) so it's all still a secret.

Will get my practical and stoic head on in the morning but tonight is going to involve :( and and then in the morning I will not feel sorry for ourselves as this is absolutely not the worst that could happen.

Oh, and DD is standing on the sofa grabbing my pebbles in a bowl (I don't care how naff they are) looking most pleased with herself.

Took me a minute to realise I didn't know she could get up onto the sofa without pulling herself up on someone

Oh Fliss :( I'm so sorry. We'll be here for you
[hugs]
x

Fliss that's really rubbishy news. Shall not "blow sunshine up your ass" (my new fave expression) but will wish for your DH a move to a different, nicer school with even more non contact hours....

Oh, crap, Fliss, sorry to hear that. Lots of really worthwhile public service jobs are going here too, left, right and centre . Oh, I feel a rant coming on...

IWCAS FOR PRESIDENT, eh, councillor!!

You go, girl!

PD - rant away

Ooh yes IWCAS - do it!

In fact, DH can come and be your assistant, he's History and Politics so could not be of use

Glad your date went well.

Have got myself out of the bucket of self-pity and have been very practical, found 11 jobs for DH to apply for and will spend the next few weeks with my fingers crossed.

Oh, that sucks, Fliss. But will now join you with firmly crossed fingers re those 11 jobs.

Councillor sounds a good idea, IWCAS. Is photography your calling, do you think? A friend of mine is just starting to make a living at it after years in admin/research office-based roles. At first the photography was just a sideline to the office job, then she jacked in the day job, left London and is now pursuing photography (along with an on-line antiquey/collectables business). I don't think she makes loads of money but retaining her salary-paying job for a while enabled her to give the photography business a sound foundation (limited risk while she worked out exactly what sort of photography she wanted to do and built up a network of contacts etc - she does a lot of landscapes and work for the National Trust).

right have finally caught up but have to put the girls to bed so will come back and 'talk' later !

Ds' first word pointing to the chandelier: luz =light in Portuguese
Shouldn't it have been mama/mummy, first?!!
he's definitely going to be an electrician

Aw, evitas, that is so sweet . And you are obviously doing well with the bilingual thing - well done!
DS1's first 'word' was "di", said with a v short, clipped 'i' which also ment 'light'. No idea how he arrived at that - German is 'Licht'...

Anyway, here is a story from today: Joe just does not have the time or inclination anymore to lie still for a nappychange - cue poo and cream everywhere. However, I have discovered if I tickle his thighs he will lie all still, go almost cross-eyed with pleasure (he IS enjoying it slightly too much ) and then let me change him. So, today I had been tickling him and got lots of great belly laughs before a nappychange on the floor. Then tickled his thighs which made him go v quiet and still very abruptly. DS3 wanders over, looks at him intently and goes very matter-of-factly: "Mummy, Jojo dead?" .

Hope you are all having a fabby weekend.
Night-night

IWCAS Sounds like the councillor position might be a good fit for you, especially as it works well with R and establishing yourself as photographer extraordinaire (not to mention all the hobnobbing functions/etc will be good networking for potential clients ). Go for it, Lady (and don't be surprised if you DO get elected!)

PD First, thanks for the reassuring words re: my astounding mood swings. I've been mostly ok this week so haven't made an appointment with my GP. Secondly, at DS3. I love the few years when they have the ability to make us laugh our socks off with the funny/starkly honest things they say. James likes his back tickled - I recognise the glassy eyed utter stillness, so as to not miss a moment of the pleasure, you describe... although it doesn't help with nappy changing given it's his back (and crikey he's so strong, I've restrained grown adults easier than him on occasion!). Might have to give the thighs a go!

evitas What a little genius! James first real word (with meaning) is 'Run, run, run, run!' accompanied by... running!

Well, we leave for Sani (Greece) tomorrow morning and in true Manda fashion, I haven't begun to pack and am quietly panicking that I don't have all the right 'stuff'. So, from now until tomorrow morning I will be VERY busy procrastinating. Plus I've got a horrible feeling I'm supposed to have contacted the resort by now to confirm the car that will be picking us up from the airport - that I will look into now as it's an 80+euro journey...

ps Feeling very broody these last couple of days. My brain says 'No!' but my body is almost aching to be pregnant again... maybe it's just that I want the baby I've lost, back?

Oh, and IWCAS are you excited (wrong word, probably...) to see the film adaptation of We Need to Talk About Kevin? It's been received quite well at Cannes. I really, really liked the book (and totally didn't see the kicker of a twist whilst reading even though I had a feeling of something not being right...) and am keen to see it myself. Haven't been to the flicks since James was born which is dreadful considering how much I used to go.

just popping in to bid u farewell - were off to porth cawl tomorrow til friday so i will catch up then have a great week everyone x

Happy holidays to Manda and Sarah - have a lovely time, both of you .

Dh almost killed himself today putting up The World Largest Trampoline in our rather tiny garden . Him "I did not think it would be that big..." Me "How small did you think 12ft across was??"

You've gotta love ebay....

Oh, evitas, it would be lovely to get together in Edinburgh one of these days? A monday? Or (soon ) Thursday? Or is a weekend better? PM me if you want .

Suggestions for bunfight:
-anybody who doesn't BF is a Bad Mother
-benefits are for Lazy Slackers
-David Cameron is a Sexy Beefcake
-disabled people should just damn well snap out of it and man up!

Absolutely no words here yet, lots of 'tuneful babbling' and screeching with pointing if he wants something though. And he knows that the lid goes onto the milk container and that DS3's beaker contains juice rather than water - that boy will go far .

I am glad that others here recognise the 'glassy eyed stare' when pleasured . Totally agree with your sentiments, IWCAS, re taking innocent pleasure in their own bodies. I just wish that 7 year old DS2 was not quite so obsessed about his bits or that he recognised that there was a time and a place...

Would not one of you want to be my nanny?? Live out, natch. I am sure you would find childcare for you own LOs no bother at all while looking after mine... No, seriously, it amazes me how many people looking for nannying jobs have pre-school children themselves: what do they do with them when they are working?? I am so not really comfortable with this

How's everyone doing? We got back from Montenegro yesterday; it was lovely, the mountains and the coast are stunning. The capital city, where ILs live, is a bit on the grubby side and the driving is mental (overtaking on blind corners with a steep cliff on one side? Check). Isobel had a great time on the beaches and in her paddling pool and playing with ILs big labrador. DH and I managed to chill a bit and even had a couple of lie-ins while MIL took Izzy, bless her. Izzy's walking is coming on really well, she needs to hold someone's hand but she's so much more confident now. She's taken a few steps on her own as well, so I think she's pretty close. She's also climbing more though; DH turned his back for 10 seconds yesterday and turned back to see her standing on top of her rocking horse, trying to climb up the bookshelves

iwcas, Izzy likes her 'B' words too, although she mainly just says 'ba' for anything that begins with a b. Bees, beans, ball, bike and Boo (the aforementioned labrador). As of yesterday though she mastered the 'bee' sound, and even said 'baby' while bringing me a book with a baby on the cover :)

Fliss that really sucks about DH's job, I hope he finds something soon. I am currently burying my head in the sand about everything work-related, including childcare which I probably should have sorted long ago.

Melk how are you feeling after the 10k? Today has been my first day of exercise since we left for the holiday, as I developed a stinking cold (in the 28 degree heat ).

Manda and sarah I hope you both have lovely, relaxing holidays :)

I loved We Need to Talk About Kevin, will have to look the film up on IMDb. It has to be better then The Time Traveller's Wife and The Lovely Bones, right?

DS has been screaming for an hour... It's the third time he does this in a week: goes down well and than around midnight/1am wakes up and only falls asleep when one of us is next to his cot with one hand on top of him. So we've decided to try (again) CC... :( gosh this is so hard!

ok... he's asleep and I'm exhausted (and still need to finish some work before going to bed).

Oh dear evitas, sorry you've had a bad night. Could DS be teething? Sleep has regressed here too, since the tummy bug we all had a while back. Isobel wakes between 1am and 3am every morning and we take her into our bed, as she usually falls asleep quickly that way. In the long term though, we really need to get her re-settling in her own bed. Bedtimes have also become a challenge. We used to have great routine: bath, bottle, then bed about 8-8.30pm. DH would put her down awake and she'd be alseep within 20 minutes. Now she screams the place down and if we let her stay up till she seems obviously sleepy, it's about 10pm before she goes to bed. We need to do something about it; probably CC here too :(