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.

Bluey Brilliant! Made me giggle.

Evitas Thank you soo much!

Anyone else watching the apprentice?

Yay for SO much good news and... you're off my active convos again! I have no time to post now after searching you all out; hopefully tomorrow!

Hello, all!

Happy to read about everybody's good news, but really just marking my place.

No words here still, Joe's better though, even had a solid dinner tonight: pasta and bolognese sauce rather than 6 yogurts like yesterday . Oh, and he seems to have decided he'd rather sleep in a double bed (in his room) rather than in his cot . But hey, as long as he sleeps...

Hi all,

Thanks for congrats.

PACIFIC- really pleased Joe getting better.

BLUEY yay for walking!

SARISKA yay for masters- go girl!

No words here except mam and in there! Daddy is desperate for daddy!

Does anyone else have a Houdini?! DS can now reach on tiptoes and open house doors- this is gonna be a pain ;-)!

Hope everyone has a good wkend xx

dizzi- loving the apprentice!

PD_ glads to hear joe is on the mend and eating again x

Bluey- yay for steps! :)

houdini here too! oh and we love to shove things down the toilet"! grrrrr! annoying habit that one!

am off to London today :) were visiting a museum called Geffrye museum- something harry has been learning about at sachool! he is very excited!

waves to all x luch love x

grrr pressed button to early! ...... school!

Oh RKD - if ur lurking how is your sister and her twins? hope they are all well and her pg is going well x

PD Hooray for Joe being back on solid food!

Sarah Museum sounds lovely! Must attempt to visit sometime, having only been once when I was at college and once to Wembley stadium.

Today I am off to Birmingham with DH, DM and DF (interesting as they only speak to each other when necessary after 20 years of divorce) for my Graduation at the Symphony Hall :) .

This is a subject dear to my heart - please have a look, but only if you are not easily put off your dinner/evening. 'Tis upsetting, sorry .

Nothing much to report here today, DH working this weekend and seems to have done all hours that god sends for the last 2 weeks or so - I am getting a bit fed up weary of doing bedtimes on my own...

Evening ladies

Little bit tipsy here, as me and DH had a lovely meal out (in Mayfair no less [swanky]) for our anniversary (4 years married!). We had a proper babysitter and all...a local nanny who does extra babysitting. And it all went well - she even ironed DH's shirts and emptied the dishwasher! It was so so nice to get out just the two of us (for only the 3rd time in the last 15 months). I felt very grown up having a proper babysitter. I'm now looking forward to having a bit more of social life as a couple!

PD glad to hear Joe is on the mend. And thank you for raising that issue on your thread. I've donated to that charity. A friend made a documentary about it years ago in Nepal/Bangladesh and it was the first I'd heard of it. Heartbreaking . It's definitely an issue that needs to be more widely known about, understood and prevented. I feel so grateful for the fact of where I live and where I've given birth. We are so privileged to have the NHS.

Fliss so glad to hear that you've been enjoying the garden! And hope the graduation went well (and that your parents behaved!). What did you graduate in [nosy]

Sarah hope you've had a great day out in London! I saw some of your FB status updates and was loving the idea of you on a London bus and the like . I've been meaning to go to the Geffrye museum for years - I used to live down the road from it in Shoreditch. Let me know how you got on.

RKD also wondering about your DSis and the twins - hope all is going well for them. And for you

MummyElk I think you were also in Laaandon this weekend - hope you had a gleeful time

Scooby well done you! Bloody fantastic result. Also have a bit of a houdini here, in that he can open doors (including the front door of the building so if you leave the flat door open he'll leg it to the front door to try and get out onto the street!).

Sariska well done on the Masters! What's it in? Would you study part-time while working or is it something you'd do full time?

Big waves to everyone else.

The other news in our house is that I've got a new bike. I applied for that cycle to work scheme and am now the proud owner of a gorgeous old-y fashioned-y bike, and with a wicker basket and everything! So today the 3 of us cycled down to Upper Street in Islington (DS needed new shoes as the comedy expensive first pair we bought him lasted just over a month so have now gone for sensible start-rite instead...) and then went to the new playground in Clissold Park, which is just fantastic (MissPentuth and Squiggly if you ever fancy it it would be a great place to hang out for an afternoon in the sun). And cycling through traffic wasn't as scary as I thought...I may even actually cycle to work on it!

OK, off to obsessively check my email to see if I got any Olympic tickets in the second round of applying.

Nighty night!

hey all- had a fantastic time in london! :) the museum was fab Harry and his friend had a great tiome looking at how times have changed over the years!(did u have that chair mum when u were little- "erm no son i was never in the victorian times! ") they will have lots of info to take back to school on monday! :)

I am so sad that i ahve never been into london before and am very excited to be returning to see some more!

Hope u had a great day at sympony hall Fliss!

I love cycling flip- we have a trailer onn the back of the bike for elliott and Rosie x tis ace and a great way to do something cheap as a whole family too x

Right must go check the choc muffins baking in the kitchen x

mwah x

Glad you enjoyed London sarah and I laughed out loud at Harry thinking you grew up in Victorian times Give me a shout if you come back this way and fancy meeting up!

Melk how was your trip to London?

Hope the graduation went well Fliss. Was it for your OU course, or have I just made that up (memory is still atrocious, how long can I get away with blaming 'baby brain' do you think?)?

Flip at your bike, sounds lush. Be careful cycling around your work if you do decide to, I don't know which direction you'd be coming from but that crossing at the station can be a bit terrifying. We should definitely meet up soon, the DCs are just growing up so fast, and Clissold Park sounds like a good place to do so.

Yay for the walking, Bluey! And 'Daddy!', too cute.

Shroomer hope you've had a relaxing holiday and that the hysterosalpingogram went ok.

Arcadie we're missing you, hope all is well.

Squiggley loved the hedgehog video on FB :)

We've had a fab day, went to the Princess Diana Memorial playground in Hyde Park. It's great, there's sand and water and a big pirate ship. I had the forethrought to take a change of clothes this time which was a Good Idea as it took, oh, about 15 seconds for Izzy to sit down in the water and then cover herself in sand. It was too hot though, so we only stayed about 45 mins. Lunch in Kensington and then a walk back through the park, complete with huge ice creams. Big smiles all round :)

miss p! would love to meet up if i come down ur way again! your day sounds lovely btw ! x

I want a huge ice cream too!

Ugh, it's too blardy hot here in Lahndan, make no mistake. Doesn't help that my flat is

Manda, West facing, the sun sets in the West

I am just as summer does not seem to be happening here. At all. Gah! I moaned about it to my brother (in Germany) who is sitting in a not-airconditioned office with outside temperatures of 35C the other day and he was Not Sympathetic to me .

You Southerners enjoy your hot weather and have a large icecream or 5 on my behalf

PD it's incredible the weather up here ... it's hard to get used to this "non summer", my sympathies. Glad J. is better. I was very impressed with your other post :(

sorry, not much time to post. I'm on a conference till Wednesday and I still need to finish my presentation. Not looking forward to it, though.... I don't know why, but I'm feeling a bit demotivated and fed up of this PhD :(
ok, I'll stop moaning.

waves to everyone else
x

Hello everyone. Lovely to see you all and very nice to see lots of good, happy news on our thread.

Everything is going pretty well here. I am up to my neck with paperwork...having never encountered the benefits system before I am very to say the least. Still, I am sure it will all work out in the end. The girls are both doing wonderfully. J is a little star. Seriously, if she is eating - preferably chocolate cake - then she is happy. She runs around the house, pretty much has free rein of it actually. She can now stand on tip toes and open the internal doors. Thankfully the external doors have a double close thing that even she can't work out yet. She is a very, very happy little girl who loves lots of cuddles. She is also into everything. And she likes climbing. She goes to a fab childminder a couple of days a week which she loves.

India is doing well too. She starts reception in September just a few days after her 4th birthday. They're going to let her do sessions to start with, to let her bed in. It's a really long school day - 8.30am - 4pm, although I think the first hour is given to 'quiet contemplation' (Quaker school), so I think she will find it tiring to begin with.

I'm off to Barbados for a whole long, glorious month in July - well, at the end of July. Cannot wait. I will be flying out with the girls, my mother & my sister-in-law. My step son & nephew (both the same age & very good friends) will be coming about a week later. Then SIL & nephew go back, and about a week later DSS leaves and my brother's girlfriend arrives! She'll be there for a week or so and then we all fly back to gether. So - probably selfishly - there will always an extra pair of hands to help with the girls I am looking forward to loading up my Kindle and catching up with some reading....anyone have any recommendations?!

I am very much looking forward to meeting you, Misspenteuth on Saturday I think we will have a blast!

DD just went off to Prom about an hour ago... is it too PFB of me (because she was y first ) to say she looked beautiful and I'm sure she'll be the belle of the ball? I don't care!

I just added a snap of her on my profile so you can all agree with me!

(and a more recent snap of James, taken in May)

Evening all
What a glorious day. Such a shame it?s been too bloody hot for my little clan ? all the effort put into doing the garden, and they decide the best place to be was in the living room standing in front of the fan, following it around as it oscillated

Saturday was lovely, couple of pics on FB. Parents were VERY well behaved apart from Mum falling asleep twice before I got to the stage. DH nudged her awake in time for me though. No news here and I am avoiding working and cleaning due to the heat, although I think the black cloud outside is about to fix that (the heat, not the cleaning, sadly)

Flip I got a 2.1 BA (Hons) Humanities with History with the Open University (well remembered Miss Penteuth). Got my degree certificate in about February but had to wait until now for the Graduation ceremony. Am very jealous about your bike, I think the only sort I would consider would be an old style one with a basket but I fear it would become an ornamental piece rather than an object of use.

Rinders Fab to see you. Glad to hear that the girls are doing so fabulously. Barbados...no recommendations other than lots of trashy novels and a cocktail list.

Manda OMG, how spectacularly gorgeous is your family? Hope DD has an amazing time.

Manda how did DD get on at her Prom? She did look beautiful, and J is getting so grown up too. And so cute!

Lovely to see you on the thread Rinders. A month is Barbados sounds wonderful, and you're not selfish at all to be pleased to have extra help with the girls. I'm looking forward to Saturday too, although I think it will be the first time I've left Izzy with DH for a whole day. He'll be fine, he's great, but he gets a bit lost after a few hours with her. Planned activities might be a good idea, and fingers crossed that the weather stays favourable (and for us too!).

Glad the graduation went well Fliss, and I'm sure I said it at the time but well done again on the 2:1 :)

Fliss that mental image of your lot following the fan is too funny - how wise are they? And yay for graduation ceremony!

Good to see you Rinders! A month in Barbados with helping hands? Fabulous. REally hope you can take time to really stop. Relax. Breathe. As for reading recs, I've really fallen off the reading bandwagon since James was born, so far managing just one (old) book but might be able to make a suggestion if I had an idea of what you usually like?

Evitas How'd the presentation go? Or, if it's today, good luck with the presentation! It's got to be natural to lose motivation along the way when the journey is long and you encounter life changing events (baby!) before the end... but try to remember why you started in the first place, and what it'll mean to have your doctorate.

I knew the sun sets in the west, PD actually Remember from childhood the sun is up early (so take the E from early to know East) and obviously sets the opposite side... THe thing is, it doesn't directly face where the sun ends up when it sets. That's, like, over to the right if I look out of my living room window. So, it's gotta make it a south west or north west? Or am I putting too much thought into this? That does sound like something I would do...

BMI DD had a pretty rubbishy time, I felt really sorry for her Some 'clever' boy thought it would be 'fun' to take a (she said) 'CS spray' but I assume pepper spray or some such and let it off... Cue all the kids herded outside for a couple of hours and the mood obviously ruined. She'd been SO looking forward to it, too. Me, I very rarely look forward to anything, even amazing holidays. I think I've been disappointed too many times in the past, so I manage my expectations and anything better than crap is a bonus! But I dont wanna crush her spirit by advising her to do the same

Hi all. Just back from dd1's nursery graduation. unfortunately straight after she was due to go with the CM for the afternoon, as per usual but she threw a massive wobbly just before she left, crying, screaming, refusing to get in car, saying she wants to stay with me. Cue me feeling hugely guilty - I'm not working today so there's no real need for her to go, other than she'll have fun playing and also I couldn't just give in because she was kicking up a stink. Or could I? Just this once?? I feel like the CM must be judging me, even though she's totally not that sort of person. Gah. I'm so not looking forward to the inevitable scenes at the school gate in the autumn

Manda, I beg your forgiveness: I knew you knew were the sun set, but couldn't resist a snipe . And I am totally befuddled re North-north-west, south-west-south
Grrr at your DD's prom upset - so unnecessary.

heckle, your DD will be fine, she will. You OTHO might well be a Nervous Wreck

Hello, evitas, have you done your presentation? How did it go??

Hello to everybody else. My boys are off school since last weekend, I am still working, holiday approaching

Manda- you have annoyingly beautiful kids!!! Just joking! But wow what fabulous genes- gorgeous!!! Xx