April 2011 - Hello Grindstone. Nose here, reporting for duty.

[DairyBeetle]

Plumps comfy pillows, shakes warm fluffy blankets, passes them round, sleeps

Happy Birthday for yesterday Ecuse

Hurrah for the tooth MrsW! DS has got two new teeth at the top, but not the middle ones, the ones either side so he is going to look like a vampire for a while! I also need to revisit his latch as he keeps catching my nipp with his top fangs.

Glad to hear you and the boys are getting better Ali. I have two boys full of cold too. I am hoping it is just a cold, as ds's BFF at pre school was off with chicken pox a few weeks ago and when I worked out incubation times I worked out that if ds got it it would be about now...............

I also have my niece and nephew staying and they go home tonight. I have never gone through so many plates, cups and cutlery in my life. The dishwasher has been on permanently!

No ss received here and mine was posted a while ago and the person hasn't said it has been received - but theni don't think they have been on here at all since I sent it.

Happy Birthday to all I've missed.

No teeth, still, here yet. Though buckets of dribble recently so maybe soon....

Having a bit of a lazier day as DS1 is at Holiday Club today & getting fed there. So much calmer with just 2 at home - never would have imagined myself saying that years ago!!

Hope you had a lovely day Ecuse :) I'm still trying to book a facial as my birthday pressie from DH. The place i usually go to seems to be shut at the moment

Secret Santa has been received here.

DH and I are making mince pies tonight once M is in bed , I also want to make some stollen and a yule log before Christmas but in reality it might have to wait until the days between Christmas and New Year. We also need to buy cheese for our annual Christmas cheese-fest

Hello ladies! I am sorry, since I'm back at work I never have time to read or post. I hope everyone's well. I only posted my SS on Monday, so huge apologies if it doesn't make it in time. It's on the way! Mine arrived about a month ago so please can my SS come and run my life.

Hope everyone have a lovely Christmas

Hi Jo, how is work and the house of your dreams going?

This morning we are going to the NCT Christmas party which I helped arrange, so I've got to get there early and no doubt will be there until the bitter end clearing up

Then that is it for the festivities until the actual day, thank The Lord. We are all pooped. this afternoon I think we will all be zoning out to a DVD. No doubt Ice Age 3 or The Incredibles .............. again!

Just need to marzipan and ice the cake, decant the raspberry gin into poncey bottles and make a dessert on Xmas Eve for the next day. Is everyone else nearly done? Each year I say I am going to scale things down, yet each year I somehow seem to do more

I am locking myself in the house until the big day because every time I go out the door I spend money!! Nipped to Aldi yesterday for some fake Baileys (it really is as good if not better) and came home with LED lights for under my kitchen units and they are crap. And I've also had to take most of the items off my asda shop being delivered tomorrow because I got it at Aldi! Seriously I should do my big shop there as it is so much cheaper for things like bread and milk. I'll just have to avoid the middle aisle of use ful less junk!

I'm also panicking that I haven't got enough for B and he'll somehow be emotionally scarred because we haven't bought him enough!! I know I know!! He'll be more interested in the boxes and wrapping paper!

PS - Thats the 3rd night in a row of him sleeping right through!

House of dreams owners decided that they liked it so much they are staying. I am livid, naturally. Sweet of you to ask, Ilike. Your Christmas sounds lovely. I am heading to my parents so that mum can spoil C and cook!

Work is ok, it's really nice to be back. So peaceful! I miss C dreadfully though and he's been ill for three weeks with some sort of rolling cold/bug combo. Hope he's ok for Christmas.

Fizz, so jealous of sleep. Good luck avoiding shopping.

Morning all!

I am one of the perpetual disorganised, which is why I'm not doing SS! I'm v impressed with all who are involved.

Sorry to hear about the house Jo.

Nice to finally hear some good sleep news Star.

Very envious of your good night Fizz!

F's got the perma-cold too, Jo. He's had a cough hanging on for ages too. It's starting to get really annoying/distressing at night, so we're off to see the doc about it this arvo. Although I doubt they can do much.

And we suspect he might be about to come down with chicken pox, just in time for xmas (another kid at the childminder's has it).

But, sleep is improving, only 1 wakeup at 4 last night!

Oh, and Fizz, we've only got F a couple of books & a waterproof all-in-one for Christmas. I'm sure the rest of the family will spoil him!

Happy Birthday ecuse, and congratulations on teeth and all other achievements!

We are still full of cold etc here. After an awful night where I had to run the shower scalding to get enough steam going to clear T's chest so he could feed, I hauled the boys off to the GP earlier. T has a chest infection, so we've got anti-bs for him and new inhalers all round. I feel like shit and I just want to go to bed and sleeeeeep.

Just to add to the Christmas cheer, DH has been put at risk of redundancy! He is remarkably calm, and is setting up his own business as well as looking for a new job.

Jo - oh no what a bummer about your house! There will be something better, for sure. This exact thing happened to us before we bought this place, and we thank our stars regularly that it did fall through because we would have been looking to move again by now.

Ali :( - what crap news and crap timing. My fingers are crossed for your DH.

Glad that the return to work has been ok Jo. Hope that you find your new dream home soon!

Sorry to hear that there are lots of poorly babies around at the moment. I'm coming down with a cold and reckon it'll be just my luck that P will get it for Christmas. I'm dreading her being poorly and therefore not sleeping a wink when we're at various relatives houses. Ho hum...

P appears to be a fast learner though . She started trying to pull up on things on Monday and can now pull herself up to her feet and wiggle down the coffee table. It's a nightmare - everytime I turn my back she's screaming because she's crawled off and got herself stuck somewhere or has stood up and can't get back down!

Anybody know how long it usually takes for babies to take their first steps once they can pull themselves up? I go back to work in a couple of months and would love to be there when she does it, so hope it will be before then!

Oh no Ali, that is shite, just shite. Amid all this chaos I hope you can get some time to recover {{}}

My ss arrived today

star - I think the answer to the first steps question is 'how long is a piece of string'. I've known some babies who have walked a few days after pulling themselves up, and some who have taken months. They are all so different.

Sorry to hear about the house Jo. stuff them, something even better will come along I am sure.

Ali News about the job is worrying (why can't they be sensible and start these procedures after Christmas) but I applaud him for having the drive to §tart a new business. I tend to think that it's not what happens to you in life but rather how you respond to it. Sounds like you've got a star there Ali :)

SS has arrived and has a lovely tag! Thank you whoever you are! It is sitting in our room just now and will go under the tree when that also goes up on Friday night :)

I'm really looking forward to Christmas now.

I've got our priest coming round for dinner tomorrow first though, that's the last social thing I'll need to do before the big day. Wish me luck I'm attempting Cullen Skink. poor Polish man

I know what you mean about locking yourself in Fizz however...I have internet and I'm spending lots of time sneezing and coughing gazing at internet shops willing their sales to start!

Ali sympathy for feeling rotten and prospective redundancy.

I have to share this! Who had the incredible rolling baby months ago? Who rolled around the room after a remote.

F has finally mastered rolling this week (only 4 months late!), and has just done the across-the-room thing

I'm so proud!

Locking myself in didn't help. I've added a fisher price walker yo my Asda shop being delivered tomorrow. oops!

Sorry to hear about dh Ali. fingers crossed he'll be ok.

I had to call my.manager today to see how my fw request. so its as I thought they can't accommodate me on my old team so they are having to find somewhere else for me to go. hope they work that bit out before I go back in Jan.

Buck - well done F!

Fizz - fingers crossed about work.

I'm actually feeling a lot better this afternoon, DS1 is in bed already having half fallen asleep on the sofa and then refused dinner. He is much better, but tired so an early night will do him good.

T seems a bit perkier so I am hoping for a better night tonight.

arch - you are right, I do have a star. He has already got an interview lined up for tomorrow Every cloud etc, he is determined this will be a positive thing for us.

DD rolled once at 5 months & hasn't done it again since! now 8 months.
Think she wants to skip all that baby stuff and go straight to running around after her brothers

x-posts JKS, Baby P is the same on the can't be bothered to roll again front. She's happy just sitting, rocking or leaning over with a little bit of bum shuffling thrown in if she's desperate to grab something. I fully expect her to just walk into the kitchen one day when I've left her sitting on the playmat.

I've come up with my festive name

No rude connotations there GGF!!

Just a quick Hi as I'm restricted to mobile only MNetting after a certain small human got hold of, and broke, the laptop power cable! S's SS arrived yesterday and it was DH I had to restrain from opening it! But it's now tucked under the tree.

Today was my last day at work till 2012 I'm now hoping we can get S a bit more settled as he's taking all his milk b'ween 6pm and 6am and is back in our bed at night (won't go near the cot!) All with 4-5 wake ups a night thanks to teething. Suffice to say I'm knackered!

Anyway, hope all goes well for you DH tomorrow Ali. Well done F on the rolling, though watch out Buck as nappy change time will soon become a game of catch the baby! And Fizz, step away from the online ASDA shop! [Fgrin]

I have hot chocolate and Cointreau, yum yum yum

SSS - I like it. I am rather partial to a bite or 12 of stollen myself!

I bought T a Fisher Price animal train thing online. It arrived yesterday and it is flippin' massive! DH also shopped for him, and we had a vast pile so we've put some things aside for his birthday - which is only 3 months!!!!

Dairy - we have the same with sleep. T is in his cot now, but after his first wake up we will have the devil's own job getting him back into it and he will likely end up in our bed for most of the night. I don't know how you manage it with working, hats off to you.

DH and I have sat down this evening and crunched some numbers, so feeling much better :)

Birthday in only 3 months??? holy crap. Where HAS the time gone?

I have declared today to be a pj day. Ds2 is off to his Granny's this arvo, apart from that we are doing nothing. Except I'll do a bit of housework here and there as I have a mountain of washing to do. But I think I can manage moving piles of washing from the washer into the dryer!

Ds3 really needs to start crawling. He is very frustrated by it and spends most of the day in a fury. But each day he gets a little bit closer to mastering it, so there are blue skies ahead. But then that means even more challenges ahead doesn't it?!