dec 2008- Who will stonk it in & be crown queen of the thread?

[HRHvagolaJahooli]

He we are ladies though I may need to change my name as royal title may be stripped.

X-posted Effie, welcome back!

Rubes all I remember of your post was the non iron shirts. He loves them because he can pack them for business trips then doesn't need to iron them at the hotel if he hangs them as soon as he gets there. I don't remember any offensive tone. I was going to ask you if MR Rubes buys M& S suits lots of consultants like them because they don't need dry cleaning. I got DH onto them.

Lady I mainly mentioned Humberside,.because back in Australia when I had no idea what a 'Hoombersard' was (I had a vague idea it was a place) I used to love the way he said it. I'm still not completely sure where it is, is it Hull?

I feel like fish pie now!

Lady I think that is a good idea esp the Magistrate bit. One of the mums of a child I looked after was a magistrate. I am finding the demonisation of the yoof by the media on all this a bit bloody annoying. Many of them weren't even young and many others were career criminals who instead of hotwiring cars that night were looting. In the areas where the looting occurred those young people who were involved represent a small percentage of the overall under 19 populations. If there is anything wrong with our society its that we expect kids to grow up hardly ever seeing their dads. I'm not saying NL is perfect but they very much foster family friendly working practices here. People very rarely work long hours and 50% of the parents at the school gate are dads. Flexible & home working is very common.

I've asked the gite dude to inform me of the nature of the breakage, and I am not willing to accept responsiblity. If there is a crack or a broken hinge it was done through normal use so is a normal wear & tear issue not an exceptional breakage. They can't expect us to pay for normal wear & tear. Also there was no inventory done when our friends, who got there first, arrived.

Just dashing in because tea is almost ready - kiwi I've sent that list over to you. And Jolly thank you so much for the lovely book, it arrived today (v speedy!). DD swooped on the card and said 'my birthday card, thank you Mummy' and has taken it to bed with her.

I have loads more to say, but must eat. Will be back soon, love to all xx

Evening,

LadyT I think the volunteering is a brilliant idea and a lovely thing to do. One of the things I heard about the riots got to me a bit. Someone said that they were probably bored as their parents worked full time. Well my parents worked full time and I have never set fire to anything or attacked police officers.

Vag Glad your holiday was good except for the toilet seat. I'd argue it too.

ZJ I'm glad your scan went well. Does your boss know that both of you are pregnant yet?

Summer Happy belated birthday to your DD!!

On TT, DS2 probably does 1 wee on the potty per week. At all other times he kicks off as if I have asked him to walk to the moon I am amazed at Beans DD for almost being dry on a night/nap time. DS1 is nowhere near being dry overnight.

I'm sure most of you have seen that we have finally booked the wedding Feeling extremely excited now and I am throughly enjoying looking at maternity wedding dresses. Just need to get pregnant now.

Hope you are all well and I'm sorry to all I have missed.

Hello - remember me?! As usual posting a quick catch-up before finding out what everyone else has been up to. Am a bit horrified to realise that I said the same thing a week ago and never really did get to read up properly.

I hope no-one's been directly affected by the riots this week. Have had lots of putting the worlds to rights conversations this week and am now watching Young Voters' Question Time and have the woolly-minded liberal side of me arguing loudly with the string 'em up side.

How is everyone coping with the holidays? DS' world carries on as usual as nursery stays open, and DD has swung between a breathtaking social whirl and not much happening. We launched a new venture last night so have had our hands very full, and I had far more follow-up today than I expected so neglected the poor children a bit. At one point I was on the phone when DS came into the study and started lolling around on the floor. Next thing I knew he was asleep!

Somebody asked how SS is getting on and if he's gone far and to my shame I didn't get round to answering. I haven't heard much about how he's getting on tbh, I don't like to keep raising the subject with DH, but I haven't heard that much of note has happened. He gone 100+ miles away, it's wholesale change but I think having his mum able to give him her undivided attention (when she's not at work) will do him some good. I've always thought he'd have made a good only child.

Haven't been posting much as I've been doing a bit of a Rubes and trying to spend more time with the children - obviously an epic fail today but at least it was in a reasonable cause. I've also noticed that I age visibly the more time I spend looking at laptop, desktop and phone - I get terrible pouchy bags under my eyes and look terrible, it has more effect than how much sleep I get. I'm wearing my glasses a lot whereas I often go literally months without wearing them, so I need to put computer use in its place, esp as I like to read too.

Anyway, I'm going to go and read up on other people. Am wondering about the little boy with the injured finger.

Love the wedding poo story swap Beans - only you could end up talking poo with a handsome man!

Vag holiday sounds gorgeous. Talking of laundry I'm the Queen of Laundry but have recently tried to be more objective about whether things need washing. Example today - DS got a pair of trousers a little bit damp as he didn't get to the potty quite in time, but rather than throwing them in the basket, I gave them a quick rinse and chucked them on the line to dry. I know water conservation is an issue but it's the electricity to power the machine that concerns me more, with a recent letter from the electricity company with the jolly news that our bill will be going up by 10% We're now on a mission to reduce our elec consumption by 10%, which is quite obssessing actually!

ZJ had to laugh at the pants matching!

Sybs how terrifying, men with baseball bats.

Beans You can keep Daniel Craig but Arnaud Rebotini is mine, though I think he might be gay - does anyone know? I'm just a slave to that cheesy look, I can't help myself. Also rather like chunky men - as you'd know if you saw DH! I'll never persuade him to grow a quiff but he does sometimes grow his sideburns down to give me a thrill and once grew his goatee quite long but it had to go as it made him feel a scruff Great news about night-time dryness - we're aeons away from that atm but M is good in the day, very proud of how easily he's managed all that. Sorry to hear about the money row. I have no money for myself either and often wear other people's cast offs (though only ones I like!) as do both children. Our food budget is very small for a family of five - six until recently - and we regularly go without things other people take for granted. Like you I spend on food and fuel, with the odd other purchase. I have a friend who buys all the clothes, books and music she wants and I'm just staggered that anyone can do that, it's so far outwith my experiences of the last five years. It's all the harder as we have no overdraft and no credit cards so we have just what comes in. But, and it's a big but, DH and I are working together to build our company and it is growing, just not fast enough for comfort. Neither of us ever blames the other for anything and that's the key - if you and your DH together have agreed that you won't go back to work for three or four years then it must be accepted and not thrown back in your face. If shirts are an issue it makes sens IMO for him to buy another three or four shirts so that they can be cycled more comfortably. I went wild today and spent £2.50 on socks for DS in Aldi as I'm always scrabbling around for socks for him. It came out of the food budget, as did the £3 I gave DD to go swimming with a friend, so that's a fiver less I have on food this month but that's the choices. By this stage of the month I'm looking to buy milk, fruit and veg and live out of the storecupboard which bristles with split peas, lentils, veggie burger mix etc. All of which is a big old ramble to say that it's not easy living on less than you're comfortable with but if DH and you have an agreement then that's the point. If the agreement isn't working then it needs reviewing. Anyway I see now you've had a much deserved apology, which is nice

I must admit I do the ironing but then it feels right to me to do it. DH does sometimes ask where a particular shirt is but I don't take it as a dig, it's just that he knows I take care of that side of life so he asks rather than trespassing all over my territory. I actually quite like ironing, I find it soothing!

ZJ great to hear the scan went well. Do love your DD's immense vocabulary of poo descriptions!

Have just seen the ref to I Capture the Castle. I read this for the first time a few months ago and absolutely adored it. Def recommend reading it as opposed to just listening. I went on to read Dodie Smith's biography which was long but interesting for anyone into C20th theatre.

ola all. sleep still atrocious, but have successfully lowered my expectations, which helps. and tomorrow we go on holiday to a big house we are renting with lots of friends (9 families) where dh, dd1 and dd2 and i are SLEEPING IN THE SAME ROOM. oh hell.

not much to say, but i loved the book and the film of i capture the castle. lovely.

night night all. will try to lurk.

WG Have a lovely holiday. Sorry that sleep is still bad, if your expecting the worse I guess things can only get better.

Trudy I share your painon the electricity. I got told by British Gas they were putting my bill up even though I have a substantial credit. I went mental, asked to be put through to the Chief Exec, so he could explain to me why my money was sitting in their accounts gaining interest and yet they wanted more off me? Needless to say they aren't putting my bill up after all (yet) but I still never got to speak to the Chief Exec...how rude!

kayz When is your wedding booked for? Very exciting.

spot Sorry to hear that are still having sleep problems and the T is jealous of B. I know when I had DS, DD got less jealous as he got older and needed me to do less for him iyswim. Hang in there it will get better.

DH at work all weekend,and its raining here (again). I'm out of indoor play ideas. Its going to be a long day.

DB Wedding is booked for 17th February. We've been very lucky as DP's parents are giving us £1500 towards it so feeling less stressed about money.

WG Have a lovely holiday. Hope sleep gets better while you are away.

The boys slept until half 7 this morning, twice this week they've slept in.

Kayz - lovely news! How exciting - now on with the TTC!

WG - we had to share a room all 4 of us for 4 nights in June, with DD2 still up 3-7 times a night. It actually wasn't sooooo bad, because we didn't have to walk so far to see to her, if you know what I mean. AND DH got to see first hand how bad it was, rather than sleeping through it!

All well here. Am hanging with the little birds. They, too, slept til 7.30 and DD2 only up twice in the night, so not so bad. My oldest sister gave us one of those Little Tykes plastic rocking horses when DD1 was born and DD2 loves it. It has had a rebirth. DD1 now also loves it, just so DD2 can't go on it... Hmmmmmm.

Must go and get them dressed. Trudy, sounds good without SS there! Hurrah! Glad work is picking up too, that's brilliant news! Will do more catch up when I can.

Big kisses

xxxx

Hiya everyone.

Lovely time in France - seems like ages ago now. Work is a bit mad at the moment so totally knackered.

Have skimmed through but not much has stuck - my brain is frazzled at the moment. But did want to ask Invis how DS is - how much of his finger is gone and will it affect what he can do?

Other than that I'm totally brain dead and can't even remember the stuff I read 5 minutes ago. Oh yeah congrats kayz.

Erm... anyway, wanted to know if there is any chance of the picnic going ahead. Haven't seen most of you since this time last year!

Also, I'm up north last couple of days of August/first couple of days of September (probably 29th-1st or something like that) if anyone fancies meeting up.

Rubes have facebooked you about coming to see you Friday if you're around.

Sorry for crap non-catch up as usual. Will try to get back on later x

Very quickly as I am at work (why? why?)

My poor laptop met with an accident involving Matthew and a cup of tea. Sadly it doesn't work and so I am reduced to reading it on my phone. I will try to post but it's quite hard. Am thinking of you all and sending lots of love.

Beans - will text you too. good luck for the drive to Abs.

Thanks, Sybs - will be a marathon drive. Should be tonight as have had a sleep this afternoon and am feeling perky. BUT have to go to a drinks party tonight. Don't want DD1 to have a sleep tomorrow at all, so she will, I hope, sleep in the car. But god knows with these two. I'm setting off at 7pm, but no guarantees on the snooze front. Have driven 5.5 hrs to Cumbria before at 7pm and had them both up and noisy til 10.30, despite no sleep for DD1 and very little for DD2. God, I'm boring myself, sorry!

Right, must dash. Have packed the main stuff, now it's all the last minute bits that need to go in... Tomorrow...

hello. Just nipping on while the girlies are in the bath. Slightly concerned that they are playing 'tickle each others front bottoms to see if we can make wee come out'
One of the sheep in the field behind our house has got a cough It was very noisy this morning!
zj I was looking out for you today because we decided to have an afternoon in Driffield If I didn't have husband and daughters with me I cold have spent the whole day in the charity shops!!! There are loads! Anyway, instead we just went to the park and had a little picnic and a wander round the town. Very nice. P did a poo in the park
PD I'm not sure if I'm around when you're up north, as I'm planning taking the girls to Harpenden from 28th to 30th, then I'm back to work on 1st, but it might work...let me know where you'll be.
I've also planned the most fab surprise for L - on Tuesday we're of to That London on the train, to visit the Natural History Museum, then staying the night with my friend in Walthamstow, then on Wed we're going to see The Wizard of Oz I can't wait to see her face when i tell her what we're doing :) It'll be nice to have some time just with her.
P is bringing out the best and the worst in me at the moment. Her bedtimes are still awful and she wakes almost every hour through the night, demanding "mummy lie with me" then screaming and stamping her feet when I refuse. Last night I got so cross that I shook the cot bars (she sleeps in the bed but climbed into the cot to escape me when I tried to grab her to put her back in bed) then I clenched my fists and punched the mattress so hard it hurt. How can I feel so angry with her, yet melt when she smiles at me, and cry when she's hurt or upset? ANyway, DH has suggested that he does ALL the night get-ups to get her out of the habit of expecting mummy in the night. Sounds like a good plan to me
Sorry not to do personals at the mo - I'll try to pop back on later - girls ready to get out of the bath
xxx

Trace I totally understand the extremes between your feelings with P. I am the same with DD at the moment she can be such a horror and the next the most gorgeous girl.

Beans good luck with the drive and have a super time.

PD I am in Somerset the last week of August...otherwise would have loved to try and meet up.

Sybs, sorry about the laptop...maybe it'll work when it dries out? Or try washing at 40 degrees worked a treat with my Ipod!

Hello lovely ladies. I haven't been on for aaaaages and am on phone so unfortunately will not be doing the big catch up I would have liked. Sorry.
All is well here. Will be 37 weeks on Monday and have been told by DH to pack hospital bag tomorrow as he is convinced baby is coming this week! I don't have time for it to come until next week so am resisting! We have bought a house in Herts (well, we've exchanged - completion is in a couple of weeks) and have just put our house on the market. Lordy it's hard to always leave it "viewing ready". Not sure what's going to happen once all the new baby crap comes out of the loft!
On the TT front we have abandoned it as although DD was only having 2 or 3 accidents a day we were having no successes on the toilet or the potty. She was just holding it for as long as possible and then crying because she didn't want to make her clothes wet but wouldn't go near the toilet or potty. Thing is she's quite happy to sit on either when she doesn't actually need to go. Any ideas on how to get past this?
Hope all holidays have been/are going well and that the non-sleepers give their mummies a break soon. I have finished work now so hopefully will be better at keeping up. Apologies for self-centered essay....

We took DS1's stabilisers off and he's riding his bike properly! He looks so grown up (sniff).

Good luck Pingu!

Byeee! I will actually nip on at times when I can as Dad has his laptop up there... But have a smashing couple of weeks. Have just tried to have a sleep as DH taken DDs to Battersea Park Zoo, but to no avail, despite late night last night and near pass out on sofa with DD1earlier. Bumholes.

Done swimming this am and said zoo this pm. No sleep for DD1 and short early one for 2. Fingers crossed. Marian Keyes downloaded on iPod ready for journey. 5.5hrs. Whoop! DH did car stuff today for me, so all should be well. Wish I was like Rentaghost and could just wiggle my nose and be there!! God knows how all stuff will fit in car... Watch this space!!!

Big love x

Ooh Effie! That's gorgeous re stabilisers! And Trace I go from one end of spectrum to other here with DD1 too. Adoration to rage. She pushes my buttons!!

Yay Effie well done DS 1. That's fantastic.

Beans safe journey. Have a great time.

I'm now panicking about DDs party and where the frig I'm supposed to put 20ish kids. I must be mental.

Yay Effie well done DS 1. That's fantastic.

Beans safe journey. Have a great time.

I'm now panicking about DDs party and where the frig I'm supposed to put 20ish kids. I must be mental.

Have a great time Beans.

We've had a few fun and games this weekend. DS has obv gone through some stage of development mentally as he is all of a sudden being much more willful and defiant, and today he wouldn't nap. He was perfectly nice and cheerful about it, he just plainly wasn't going to go to sleep so we gave up after half an hour. He coped well, wasn't really grizzly much to my amazement, but he's playing up over just about everything which is new for him. He's always had a lot of personality but has hitherto been more co-operative. DH and I are being very firm and using the tactic of withdrawing attention straight away if he's being a pain over soft stuff like getting dressed or cleaning his teeth, and removing him from a situation if it's something that really matters. I had to unwrap his fingers from a chair leg earlier I'm not sure if that's that on naps, I won't give in that easily, but he prob won't sleep tomorrow either as it's his 2/3 day at nursery, til 2pm, which makes it awkward to put him down as he doesn't wake til gone 4pm. A couple of times recently he's fallen asleep in random places, so maybe that's the way it'll go from now on.

DD has been away since Friday at my parents' (who live five mins away!), being taken to the beach and having takeaways and things and had a great time. Mum brought her back earlier and stayed for lunch. I feel really sad that I seem to have been on at DD ever since she got back and I worry she won't feel welcome. Trouble is she's so careless and gives no thought to what she's doing so she's knocking over drinks, clanking doors shut right by DS' room when he's asleep, fussing over non-existent spiders in the bathroom, pratting about in the kitchen when I was cooking and a hundred other silly little things that she's always being asked not to do or reminded to take more care with. It has to be a sign of ineffectual parenting that we constantly remind her but she constantly does these things and it really gets me down. Give me a bolshy toddler over a nine year old girl any time I missed her when she was away and it's nice to have her back, but I wish it was nicer being around her. She's a lovely, energetic, intelligent, enquiring girl who's going to grow up into the most gorgeous and engaging young woman but I think we're going to drive each other mad in the process. Is it wrong or unrealistic to expect a nine year old girl to exercise a bit more care and attention? I do see the good things, I praise them and I do my damnedest to find time to spend with her, but I feel like I'm always chasing smoke. Ho hum. I go through this angst periodically with DD, I'm sure it will pass. Blame it on the holidays.

Has anyone else been blackberrying? I mean the little black fruits, not technology. We've found a good spot locally and have bbs, damsons and sloes, which are now steeping in Aldi's finest gin

Oh and another thing, DH and I are about to go out and look for Perseids as the sky's clear. Fab moon tonight.

Trudy I love your description of DS as having a lot of personality, I think I'll use that one.

I caught up on posts earlier this evening and now I can't remember a thing. So I can only remember Trudys post which I just read. By the way, DS2 was in heaven when he discovered you can actually pick food off plants and eat them. We had access to blackberries grapevines, plums and apples. The later wasn't ripe but that didn't stop him eating them. We were at a great goat farm near here the other day and they had a coronation pear with small very immature pears. DS2 stood underneath yelling at me until I picked him one, assuming when he bit into it he would realise it wasn't edible, but apparently it was and he ate 4 more. How did I have such completely opposite children. Poor DS1 looks on completely horrified.

Oh trace I just remembered, I've got no real advise on the high running emotions, only that it makes me feel less like I'm a terrible mum if I'm not the only one who feels such physical reactions.

Kayz brilliant news on the wedding, nice for some good news ;)

The gite dude seems unwilling to budge so I've simply sent a stern email expressing my unhappiness, and making sure he knows a) using a toilet normally does not break a toilet wear and tear does b) it has kind of ruined the good feeling we had from the holiday and we would not recommend his gite.

On top of that agro, we had our upstairs neighbour request that we keep DS2 quiet during the hours of 7-11 am & 1-4pm because she is on Ramadan and would be sleeping during the day. She said he runs around too much and it keeps her awake. We politely pointed out that that was an unreasonable request, esp in view of us putting up with the balconies being built and us being stuck without our garden for several days. I may have stormed off on her but DH tried to resolve the situation (he was in London for a management course last week and was using some of his new skills, bless) anyway it turns out she could sleep in her spare bedroom which is above our bedroom and she can't hear the noise from there...ffs.

Then on top of that we went shopping at a big Chinese supermarket in town and DH wandered off to a different aisle and saw the scary dutch women. He ran away quickly and told me. I said let's stay here and wait until she leaves (we were in the frozen foods section she was moving towards the checkout). DH bless him, suggested we just dump our shopping & run. I wasn't keen because I wanted the Veggie dumplings I'd just deposited in the basket and if we left without the pomelo DS2 had demanded there'd be screaming. We decided to wait it out in the frozen section but then the kids were desperately thirsty and so DH bravely took the blow and outed himself in order to get them some water. He inevitably caught her attention and she introduced him to her SIL who was with her as "someone who used to be a friend", she said as his wife never called she assumed the friendship is over. Poor DH he was so uncomfortable, she scares him as much as me. Anyway the good news is I think she has finally gotten the hint and I don't have to live in fear of an unexpected visit.

The rest of the weekend was ok, except for DH & I had a fight about money (its a full moon) it ended positively, as we have decided to stick to a strict budget. We can't cry poor, DH is on a decent income but we just don't keep tabs on what we are spending. We are not extravagant, but we have no budget system and we really need one. So the budget starts now. We took the boys shopping for a new school bag for DS1, he starts in the big 6-9year group tomorrow and he is quite nervous. He's not great with change, does anyone have any ideas of how to help.kids deal with change. The poor little man has had so much change in his life, I always try to help him feel in control somehow but he still gets really nervous and scared when something is different. He's quite excited about his school bag though (it is quite cool) and its his birthday on Wednesday. Today we went to the beach as we had a half decent day today weather wise.

Oh and I had an impromptu night out on Saturday, completely unscheduled. DH had been away all week and as the boys missed him they were a little grizzly so I needed a time out. So I texted a friend at around 5.30 to see if she could get away from her kids, she could. So by 8pm we were sipping beers in a groovy little Bohemian bar in town. We also had some lovely white wine and didn't leave until gone midnight! Had another wobbly cycle home and really enjoyed my night out. Was good to have a tipsy girly natter.

DB we are having around 15 kids here between 11-1pm on Sunday in a bouncy castle for DS1's English speaking birthday party, then we have a two hour break and then we have around 20 jongens & meisjes for his Dutch speaking birthday! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. On top of that he wants a treasure map birthday cake! Oh I feel faint

Vag Glad I'm not alone in the birthday madness! DD's party is 11am - 1pm on Saturday. 24 in total...oh and my 'friend' with the twins who couldn't come as they had a swimming lesson, are now "popping in for the first hour". Why thank you your highness for gracing me with your prescence. DD wants people to come in fancy dress, so Iput 'optional' on the invite. Said friend laughed and said "oh they don't do dress up, well I could bring them in their swimming costumes". Don't know why but she pissed me right off all over again!

Sorry the gite bloke is still being a git. However, your impromtu night out sounded ace.

trudy I fear my DD will be like yours should she ever make it to 9! I think its a bit of a transitional age. Still quite young in their thinking ie, not being careful with drinks etc but then no longer a baby. I wonder if it gets better around the time they start high school?