Feb 2010 They're all walking and talking....and some are even sleeping. The babies are doing okay too.

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Pull up a comfy chair, grab a cuppa and a piece of cake, switch the monitors on low and let's PARTY.....!!!

Oh bless him - so glad the ordeal is over. What a brave little guy. Lots of love to you Bethy. xxx

bethy so glad it went well. I hope you'll get the results quickly. How is your head this morning?

DS cough is worse today than it was 10 days ago when we went to the doctor. I guess it'll be a visit to the gp when we're back home. I wonder how he would be at the moment iif he wasn't taking AB

Happy new year!

Happy New Year to you all.

Let's hope that this new year gives us more joy, heart melting moment, hair pulling moment ( ) and that the new babies (here or to come) grow fine.

Off today to catch the ferry tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyone :)

Happy new year to you all. I'm aiming for a healthier one. DS2 had other ideas when he fell off the bed onto his head before 9a.m this a.m! All fine though.
SB hope SD is ok soon.
IC why the police? Hope all is ok.
We have begun removing gluten from ds1's diet. He's now at the 25th for weight, having dropped over the period of ill health from the 75th so plan to fatten him up asap.
Hope heads aren't too sore. Thanks for all your support last year. Planning to require less in 2012. Look forward to all our stories.

SB I mean ds but phone randomly changes things for me!

Happy New Year one and all!

The police first-footed us because someone had reported an assault and had given our address. They were very apologetic about getting us out of bed!

Good luck bethy - here's to a healthy 2012!!

Happy 2012 lovely ladies x

bloody climbers. DD just fell onto her buggy and split her lip open in two places and has a swollen hand. She's fine now of course, but going round kissing all the objects involved, saying 'Oh dear' and getting upset if her baby doll isn't in the buggy.

Oh poor DD, PA - hope it heals quickly.

Happy new year everyone.

SB - How is your DS getting on? Hope his cough is improving.

And we're home and I've finished unpacking. We arrived home at 10.30pm yesterday instead of 4pm due to ferry cancellations and bad weather! So I took today off as I needed to unpack while DS is at nursery.

PA I hope your DD's lip is getting better

bc DS cough seems to have eased (FX) but I keep an eye (ear?) on him.

I hope you're not too affected by the winds, we have gale force at the moment

at least your home safe SB

DD's lip is better today, the splits have almost gone although still swollen and looking bruised. At least the many bloody vessels in the area make for quick healing, even if they do make for loads of blood. She woke from her nap yesterday quite upset, has been waking in the night a fair few times for the past week and I had to put her down for nap today early, so this afternoon could be fun. My plan if the wind subsides is to take her puddle splashing.

She had a great time while we were away and her language has come along loads. I've just brought our first 12-18 months vests as she starting to outgrow her 9-12 ones (not HnM though, they're massive and just fitting her nicely atm). We had to put boosters back in her nappies which made clothes a bit tighter. As she's stopped weeing so much at night, her day nappies are a lot of soaked. We got given a beautiful ted baker dress last Christmas which she finally fitted into. It also appears after a pink spurt we have a half dozen blue dresses out of nowhere. Finally how wardrobes seem to go through colour phases.

Hope everyone is well

also how was everyone's Christmas? I did naively expect to enjoy most of it, which in hindsight was silly. However, there wasn't one segment I did like. Nothing really bad, but I'm still sad about it now. Do we just accept that if you spend Christmas with grandparents they're going to steal the show?

What a shame it was no fun for you, PA - I guess at least if you've made the effort to have Christmas with them this year, that next year when Nigel will understand better what's going on you can do what you like. What did they do?

I didn't have an awful time but I much prefer being in my own home and knowing I can eat when I'm hungry rather than sneaking cheese straws when we were offered nothing between breakfast and 3pm. And feeling awkward about DS's eating times. We did take a big box of biscuits and cakes for everyone so at least I was able to get stuff out the box and hand it round when the hunger pangs got to much.

DS had a fab time, he slept really well away from home as well which was a bonus. He behaved really nicely except for being a bit too excited to sit still and eat at mealtimes (could also have been because I was pretty free and easy about letting him snack on whatever I was having). We need to wean him off expecting to have chocolate so often.

It's my mum's birthday on Friday (65!) so I'm going to go out with her for the day. Not sure where or what we'll do... need to think of something.

DS is being a real joy at the moment. His daytime nap is getting later and shorter so I don't know how long he's going to need a nap for but nightimes are great and the super-early mornings have stopped (again) so we are enjoying having lay ins until between 7 and 8.

He is also talking more - putting little sentences together "turn the light on", "I dropped my cracker" etc. and being really funny. He copies everything we say so we are being much more careful with our language. He behaved impeccably in a Japanese restaurant the other day even to the extent of saying "thank you, thank you" when we left with no prompting. His other grandmother bought him a duck quacker whistle for Christmas and he thinks it is the funniest thing ever - he blows it and then cracks up. He will sit down on the sofa and snuggle with us more now and likes to give kisses and cuddles. He tried to kiss the cat the other day. She's getting much more patient with him.

PA that you didn't enjoy your Christmas. You could for the next ones alternate ie - 2011 - ILs, 2012 by yourselves, 2013, your mum, 2014 ILs...

DS's french has really improved thanks to this French stay. He doesn't do any stentences but his vocabulary has increased. He now can say car (followed by vroum ), pease (please), biscuit, tata (auntie), lait (milk), pain (bread), beurre (butter). He now uses tones which is really funny in some situation.

We had a great Christmas but from time to time it was hard with my mum as I knew (by her actions or comments) that she didn't approve the way DH and I were dealing with some of the situations (mostly tantrums) but we're his parents and she has to deal with it. DS received mostly Duplo's presents and we've managed to buy him an easel for his birthday (French supermarkets have vast choices of toys for Christmas that we don't have at home).

IC what is the make of the trampoline you got for your DD? (thinking of getting one as a 2nd present)

SB glad you made it home, what a nightmare the weather is! Good news that DS' French is coming on and his cough is easing off.
I'm not sure what make the trampoline is - I got it from eBay. There are loads on there and many people will post inside the UK. Ours cost £3.20!
Here's DD using it if you're interested

PA what a shame you had a crappy Christmas. Can you stick to your own family next year? Would that be better? Or failing that, come and spend it with us!!!
Great to hear your DD's lip is healing. And that she's fitting into some new clothes! We've been given some lovely clothes, but I don't think DD will fit into some of them by the time we start potty training and they're not really suitable once she's out of nappies......

Bc ah, the Pandora's Box that is chocolate was opened for DD as well this Christmas. Her eating has also become noticeably worse since she's been allowed to have more sweet treats. Our New Year's resolution was to stop all sweet stuff, but my DSis slightly torpedoed that by making fairy cakes with DD while I was at my acupuncture appointment. DD had a lovely time though, can't begrudge it!!
How about spending an afternoon at The Sanctuary with your Mum...?

DS had a lot of 1st times during those holidays, mostly food related but he also went to one of the ski resorts and experienced snow, had a ride on a roundabout and went on a big wheel. What a busy little boy

There's a trampoline on gumtree I keep eyeing up, but then keep thinking about space. Maybe if it's still there when we get the Jumperoo out for Nigel I grab it.

I won't be spending Christmas day there for a fair few years that's for sure. As I said nothing was horrific at Christmas just I hardly saw DD. Nigel had a rough night so I slept in. Literally as soon as we had got them both dressed and downstairs, MIL asked to take her to the park at the end of the road quickly. Although nothing wrong with that, I still found it a bit rude just expected to spend the day in and they'd 'had' her all the day before. Well wherever it was required a buggy as it was too far to walk and as they left they said 'we won't be long, back at 12' i.e. 12:30, 2 hours after they left. So, by the time they were back, she was changed and fed it was her nap time. She went straight into dinner (which is stressful enough at theirs, the first night we were there was a textbook case of what not to do/say to fussy eaters). We felt under pressure, so wonder how she felt. I was strong and kept saying not to do certain things and by the end they got the message.

After dinner was presents straightaway. They have a large room with a little L bit. For some reason they were sat in the L bit in the corner and only they gave the presents to DD so I ended up sitting far away (as this was a long thin section) watching her back. Then apparently me and DH needed a rest so MIL enticed DD into every room except the one we were in. I even said, 'DD it's Christmas and I've hardly got to see you' at which point MIL apologised, said it was her fault and then led her away again. Naturally bed time soon followed.

To add insult to injury she got a horrible colour cardi in a size 12 (from MnS which come up large anyway). Apparently she tried it on herself and they were tight ones. I exchanged it (even though it cost be 20quid to do so)

Plus that weekend they mentioned in their letter. We've told them twice it doesn't work for us (the letter implied we had a choice, just to let them know what dates so they could hotel), and they still mentioned it again on our Skype call. Now if I'd known they were busy the whole month afterwards and therefore unable to visit us I would have agreed. I'm sticking to saying no, if they want to place the pretend game, then so can I . I'll passive aggressive their arse straight back at them.

I have to admit to finding it hard not to compare the DCs, even when I tell myself not to. DD was rolling by now , however Nigel is huge (relatively) almost into 3-6 clothes whereas DD was only getting out of newborn into 0-3 months. Plus he smiles and coo's way more than she did probably because she was always crying, fighting naps

Although IC considering DD does more energetic jumping than your DD without a trampoline, maybe she's fine without one

at your DD's bouncing sans trampoline, PA! And "passive aggressive their arse straight back at them"...! Awesome.
Yep, that kind of behaviour would have pissed me right off too. Don't blame you for feeling fed up. And good for you for sticking to your guns.

PA I agree with IC.

Thanks for the picture IC, that the kind I'm looking at on Amazon.

I'm off to sell a few more used toys and clothes, fx I'll make a few quids.

thanks IC and SB

IC Your DH responded to that comment on your blog (what are we learning...).

I've just finally read unconditional parenting and half way through why love matters. Has been great to boost my attempts to question how I interact with her etc. or just re-invigorate me on our strategies. DH's parents were classical conditioning parents to the point where he feels unloved despite it being obvious to outsiders. So obviously he doesn't want to rely on the 'instinctual' approach as neither do I for myself.