Feb 2011...Creeping, crawling and cuddling towards Christmas

[chocoroo]

Morning!

Ear still pants but DP thinks his man flunks worse.

Off for hair cut but back later....

good to hear from you. Poor Lottie with her bug though. Hope she sleeps better soon and you feel better too

jane my vote is for a big bath of champagne . Was twilight any good?

deb well done you on donating blood. DH used to donate blood but I never have scaredy cat . I have notoriously hidden veins and blood tests are always a nightmare as they take ages getting a vein which has scared me off. Shame we didn't win the delia signed goodies, hey.

wiggles glad the ear piercing went without a hitch

delia go you miss domestic godess. My cooking has severely gone down hill since having Alice as never any time, but I did cook DH a chocolate bread and butter pudding yesterday . Infact, I'm feeling a bit that I'll get back to work and struggle to teach the kids to cook as it will have been so long

Hi all, well A has been waking every night since she slept through a few nights ago last night it was 3am til 4.30, boo.

reastie YUM to choc bread and butter pudding, I could eat some of that right now!

Hi wandering oh dear to the vomiting bug, poor L. Think I'm getting the lurgy myself too, have a sore throat and amm all bunged up (yuk)

jane I saw that lily allen had her baby, bless her. I am jealous of your champagne lifestyle

wiggles I got your film ref without actually having seen the film - that makes it even sadder doen't it?!

Grr A is sleepy and climbing on me = whingy, better go.

So much for my lie-in, S woke at 6 . Better than 5 I suppose... Up from her last nap at 3.30 and she was very ready for bed at 7. Still snotty though.

ponyo maybe A is coming down with the cold too and it's disturbing her at night?

reastie I know I really wanted that book, boo :( I was always a wuss for blood tests but got over it after my GD scare in pg. They found a vein easily and it didn't hurt much at all. I'll definitely do it again in 4 months.

wandering hello! Hope L is better soon, it's awful when they're sicky.

jane it will be you soon :)

Just having an altercation on FB with a complete stranger who advised a friend of mine to give her WEEK OLD BABY baby rice in her bottle .

Poor Bina today- Imy was pushing her about in her pushchair (tiny toddler size one) and she fell out onto her nose- she looks like Rudolph now, poor thing! bad bad mummy for laughing!

Where's ledkr atm? Hope Dilly's doing ok....

Namechanged back cos my photos are all on that name, and uploaded 2 new ones.

yay, debka is back! Sorry but I'm laughing at poor sabine too but I have a warped sense of humour! Hope she is ok. Hope you get a lie in tomorrow.
at the advice your friend was given! Hope you out her right in her place crazy lady! pics are fab, as always.

a question for those of you who can cook, How do you make chocolate truffles? I am thinking making some along with peppermint creams for an extra wee christmas gift for family.

Mmm, chocolate truffles! Don't know how to make them though.

Aww, poor S debka. What was the mancrushedbyalift name inspired by? Have you been watching Final Destination?
at that person's advice!

Lottie seems a lot better but she's been a bit whingy and hot this afternoon. She's just wanted to snuggle. She's gone to bed ok though, let's hope she stays there!

ponyo hope you're not coming down with anything nasty!

Oops, spoke too soon about Lottie, she's crying...

Easy peasy jane. Equal amounts dark chocolate and double cream (eg 100mls cream, 100g chocolate). Bring cream to the boil in a small pan. Take off the heat then add the chopped chocolate. Stir till melted and all combined. Add some alcohol if you want (bailey's cointreau, brandy etc. I made some last weekend and added raisins I'd soaked in brandy). Put in fridge overnight then roll into small balls and roll in cocoa/chopped nuts etc. Nummy nummy in tummy tummy as Imy would say!

X post wandering, it's a reference from a book by Nancy Mitford, Love In A Cold Climate. Bit more cultured than Final Destination snob

It just brought to mind the lift scene in FD.

Anyone watching Xfactor? I could just keep Marcus in my pocket, he's so lovely!

Lottie's a PITA! Just put her back in bed after a cuddle. I cuddle her because that's what she wants but then she starts whinging because she can't sleep because she needs her space!

Thanks Debka, I shall try them out tomorrow. My cooking skills are on the same par as wiggles so it will be miraculous if they work.

Hi wandering hope L feels better soon. Dong worry I wasn't that cultured and didn't know what debs name change was either.

Dh is watching green lantern( payback for dragging him to twilight). Boo I'm super bored!

My cooking skills are crap but Debka makes the chocolate truffles sound quite easy, I may give them a go!

I won't even pretend to be cultured jane. Peppa pig is about as good as it gets in this house

deb I'm so sorry but I giggled to myself at both the red nose and the cute picture of Bean in the bath . I apologise. Btw I really wanted that Delia book too . I wasn't going to bother making a christmas cake this year but I've only gone and order the delia at waitrose cake mix, which is completely against my anti cake mix beliefs (ie they are expensive mix you could do at home easily) but I just can't be bothered don't have the time

Right, jane re: choc truffles. debs recipe is for the proper stuff but I use a pipsqueak cheat recipe - it's so simple I've done it with brownies too and they all loved it . It's just melt some choc in the microwave and then stir in a bit of condensed milk, stir and it goes thick so you can roll them in icing sugar or whatever to make them look nice. You can add debs posh flavours in too if you like. I can look out the quantities if you want? Might take me a while to find hence why I didn't put it in now. I also have an easy recipe for peppermint creams using condensed milk too condensed milk is just the best . I've seen nice little choc boxes on sale for home made sweets in hobbycraft if you have one near you.

wandering I didn't gt debs name change either (and I like to think of myself as a little bit cultured- well, more so than dh anyway ). deb you are raising the intellectual level of this thread too high for us to keep up

ledkr I keep meaning to ask how D is managing with her bottles/food now?

Apparently there's a mn christmas party going on in london tonight - might see if there's a thread spilling the beans on what's going down

Ah yes, I thought it was a bit quiet tonight! Bit early for a christmas party isn't it, although I'm jealous as I haven't got any christmas parties planned .

We're going out for a meal on Xmas eve, with my family, but that's about it.

Ohh this evenings entertainment has moved on to Modern family, I am so lucky I married dh .

reastie their is a hobbeycraft 10 mins away from me. I am going to use Lorraine Pascal's recipe for the peppermint creams, she uses condensed milk too. I can never. ever. get brownies to work? I am going to five the truffles and peppermint creams a go tomorrow.

wandering I have no plans for xmas, and would like to keep it that way, I am buying gifts for neices/nephews and hopefully making some sweets for parents and giving them a framed wedding photo. Outwith that xmas is cancelled.

There NOT their!

jane I've got a fabbo recipe for brownies if you want it, it's a bit more convoluted than some but has always worked for me. I'm of your Hobbycraft, nowt like that round here

Morning everyone else!

Morning! A slept through! dp woke me up at 3.30 though clanking around looking for headache tablets

God its windy here today. We have a day of 'doing a shop' planned and not much else.

jane I love modern family! Hope you don't get dragged into doing xmassy things if you dont want to.

deb how long do the truffles last for? Am thinking of copying joining Jane and making them too, just need to work out how long before xmas I should make them. How is S's nose?!

wandering I think A did have a blocked up nose but am hoping she is on the mend now. She has also been a lot more snuggly recently but I like that

Hope that ledkr and Dilly are ok.

Hope everyone has a nice sunday :)

ooh debka I would love the brownie recipe please!

ponyo Well done Anya but at Mr ponyo.

reastie I just read through youor reply to me and realise you meant Brownies as in the girls club NOT the pudding! LOL

Very scarey night here last night, was so very windy, I thought our windows were going to blow in! I'm off to the shop to get some baking ingredients fingers crossed it works!

Hope everyone has a good day.

I've tried. And failed. I can't keep up. How dare work get in the way? And I'm not even full time yet!

I like all the Christmas sweet making going in. I have made some chutney and chilli jam as gifts and will be making some Christmas Pud truffles and star shaped shortbread nearer the time. I feel quite organised this year, I think after running round on Christmas Eve while 8 months preggers and recovering from the flu, I'm a bit panicked by it all!

R is coming on leaps and bounds now shr's at nursery. She waves and grins at the staff and seems to be really settling in. She's eating like a horse but her sleeping is still a bit wonky but she's been picking up germs - she lost her voice this week, so cute!

I hope all the LO's are doing well. I'll try harder to keep up this week. Might be MN-ing in the gym at lunchtimes!

Ooohhh. And R is heading towards walking. She'll hold our hand and totter along and is a speed demon with the walker. I suspect we'll have a real toddler by Chrostmas!

Jane it's been really windy here too. Loads of for sale signs blown down and a tree round the corner (not a massive one or anything so no one was hurt).

choco I can't believe R is nearly walking! Where have our tiny babies gone?!!!

L is nowhere near walking, I don't think. She likes to stand up b Ut doesn't really take steps while holding your hand. She's really quite lazy tbh, she doesn't crawl properly, just slithers around on her tummy pulling herself around with her arms. I think they class it as a commando crawl.

She ended up in our bed again last night so didn't get much sleep and I don't think she did either as I kept her awake with my coughing.

Her wet nappies really stink recently, I don't know whether it's her teeth or what but it's like a really stale urine smell (sorry tmi) like her nappy has been left for ages but it hasn't as I'm changing her really often as it stinks!

You'll have to imagine the accompaniment I have to writing this of a hysterical toddler screaming I WANT MUMMY in between coughing herself half to death. She's in bed and really needs to sleep but is evidently refusing. It's been going on half an hour now.... TBH I do not know why she wants me, I'm the one who put her to bed in the first place, surely she should be screaming for Daddy!!??

Anyway... choc was wondering where you'd got to! Glad all well but poor R with bugs :( I've also been cracking away at xmas presents, made crab apple jelly, raspberry vodka and candy cane vodka so far. I have even made some sloe gin for next year. Be impressed, girls.

S is also a happy little walker, and stands by herself too [proud]

wandering I reckon they'd last a good week or so, they've never hung around long enough in our house to find out

jane I use this recipe of Nigel Slater's. I cannot remember how many compliments I have had on my brownies. Good luck!

Hellooooo!!!!???? Anybody thereeeeeeeeee????????!!!!

FGS. Stop having a life you lot and get on MN with me. DH is watching the GP .

I don't have a life

Just googling antivibration mats to go under our washing machine exciting life and bored already

Hope everyone had a lovely week end. I made christmas cake today

Re: christmas pressies nearly all done here, and mostly all wrapped up too .

argh, back later

Ah but reastie we know you Cheated and bought a Pack! Bet your house smells lush now.