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.....!!!

PA I think you need to sit down with your dh and establish some ground rules sooner rather than later. This is coming from someone with no ILs, so feel free to ignore - but it took my mum about 15 years to stand up to her ILs and tell them that she now had her own family and wished to spend Christmas Day as a family, rather than trekking around most of Christmas seeing various relatives. Her MIL didn't speak to her for months... Much easier in my opinion to get this sorted now, in the nicest possible way, ie, you are very grateful for all the support but what would be most helpful would be x, y, z -your terms.
[steps off soapbox and bows]

PA I agree with BG you need to set the rules. Good luck

Been pondering the difference in having one tall and one tiny child... dd2 gets a lot of smiles and attention 'Aww, she's so cute, how old is she?' When I say she's 2 in February they look surprised (I've found only other mums of small children talk in months beyond a year old, so tend to approximate eg. nearly 2).
With dd1 it was hard stares and the odd rude comment about her behaving like a toddler (D'oh!) because she looked more like 4 when she was 2. And she was just as cute if not more so (she's got incredible hair)... Life's not fair, is it, even at 2.

BG I get funny looks when people see DS climbing on bar stool at the pub, or walking on rope bridge at the park and their reactions make me laugh when I say that he's 21 months (I still speak in months).

DS did a trickle of a wee on the potty tonight before bath time [yepeee] but he reacted as if it was bad (Oh no was his comment) as lots of praising from DH and I and a chocolate button as a reward. Hopefully the message will sink

No as but so lots of praising...

DD is very insistent at sitting on the potty atm. She tells us often she is doing a wee and tells us when she has done a poo. Seems to upset her that she wees in the bath. Not sure if she's just enjoying sitting on the potty or she's ready for training

and thanks all for suggestions. I did get a little angry when I realised they dumped their 'worry' on us but not followed with help, just a visit in two months time. So now we have to worry about their worry towards us, madness.

It's hard to talk with DH about it and he doesn't actually want to see them. Although this passive aggressive shit drives me crazy they don't warrant non-visits. However you are right, we need to find a way to communicate effectively with them and now I realise what they are doing I will try and not pander to their hurt and puppy dog eyed feelings so much. I'm betting they won't even mention it on our skype call on Sunday (somehow we still have to do those every week)

They've both been pretty grumpy today but somehow I made a top notch dinner. It's the little things

PA If your DD enjoys sitting on the potty, I would let her do so even if she's not ready for the training. Have you try to use a bit of Elective Communication with her to explain what the potty is for (ie it's not a chair, it's to do wee/poo)?
But if you are not ready for it, put the potty away until you are.

I think she knows what it's for (well she says wee wee when sitting on it). We have it out for naked time after her bath plus whenever her nappy rash has been bad. I wonder if her sitting on it and saying wee is a delay tactic at times to avoid bed, because she's learned that's a good thing and we don't interrupt her. Although today she found one at the playgroup and was the same.

I think at the weekend we'll have a house day with it out and try her when she says. Then a pair of hands is always around and we can evaluate the situation for what it is and take it from there.

dd2 says weeweeweeweee... all the way home!

BG

PA what about big girl pants to put on when she's nappy free to go with using the potty?

DD1 is driving me mad with her rudeness at the moment.

DD2 is not sleeping and only wants me.

DH is being useless and awful.

MIL is being ridiculously high maintenance (even by her standards).

So if someone could stop the world so I could get off for 48 hours, that would be great!

BBB oh poor you.

BBB If it's any consolation, my dd1 has also turned into a bit of a monster since starting school... The collective wisdom of MN seems to suggest this is quite common and they should turn into normal human beings by next term. Fingers crossed

dd2 is at the delightful stage where she likes to tell people everything, without any sense of its appropriateness.... This morning she told the caretaker of dd1's school that her sister had done 'pipi' behind one of the buildings, pointing to the exact spot (It was a real emergency and only happened that once a few weeks ago).... And at the weekend I gave both girls a small sweet (because I fancied one) and told them not to tell Papa (I know, dubious parenting here ). So as soon as dh walked in dd2 piped up 'Papa, sweets, look, sweets!!'
She also has a strange encyclopedic memory of children's characters. In the shop just now she walked around telling everyone around her that this was 'Petta Pig', over there 'Thomas', and 'Postman Tat' , 'Kitty Kat' (her version of hello kitty). She also recognised Mickey Mouse today and Fifi . Everyone thought she was very cute but I find it a bit embarrassing (we have no TV so how she picks these things up is anyones guess!!)

encyclopedic knowledge, not memory...

BG wait a few more years and DD2 will tell you when DD1 sneaks out to see boys Amazing that she knows those characters if you don't have a TV DS knows Oui-Oui (Noddy) as he watches one episode a day (my compromise with him)

I'm appreciating my last day at home before going back to work on Monday...

Well, when I say we have no TV, I mean we do still occasionally use iplayer or dvds. But dd2 is still unusual in her knowledge. dd1 was the opposite - she watched almost nothing until she was 2 1/2 (which oddly coincided with arrival of dd2 and the realisation that TV can go a long way towards getting through the day!! ). dd1 also wasn't interested in the least and I was once called into her nursery for a chat because she was the only child refusing to sit down and watch TV in the afternoons which the staff thought was very very strange . (They didn't like it because someone had to supervise her when they all fancied a break).

mmm smoothies

DD had only watched INTG a couple of times before shouting her version of the characters names and also yelling for it when I opened the laptop.

Managed to trim her fringe yesterday. It has to be done in stealth as DH doesn't like the idea of her hair getting cut. Distracted her with a graze box, she goes crazy for them.

I cut DS fringe on a regular basis, now I'm trying to convince DH that DS really needs a proper haircut to get rid of his mullet to make him more like a little boy (I'm also fed up people asking how old SHE is?)

Bethy Happy birthday (very belatedly). I hope you are able to get DS1 seen a bit sooner. Poor love.

PA I do get cross when I think about your inlaws and their unhelpful helping. Mine get a skype call every Thursday. This week I was feeling particularly wicked so I kept saying "Nonno" (Italian for grandpa - what he calls my dad) to DS on the way back from music class so he kept saying it to DH's parents. He can't say grandma or grandpa. It gave me a small sense of satisfaction. They are coming down Mon-Weds but at least they stay overnight at my mum's house (she's away in Cornwall). I wish they'd adjust their waking hours when they visit so we could get going earlier in the morning. They don't come over until 10 and he needs to have lunch at 12 and then nap at 1 so we can't do anything in the morning. Then it's dark by 4 in the afternoon. And his father keeps going outside and smoking.

DS is being very sweet. He's always trying to share things (even his favourite snacks) with me and with his friends. His talking is really coming on. He mimics everything. He has some funny ways of saying things - he says "Pie. Apple." for pinapple and milk is "mook". Today DH went to see our friend's little boy in Gt Ormond St and when he was telling me about the 18 month old baby in the bed opposite who hadn't had a visitor in 3 days I started to cry... DS said "mummy sad"which set me off even more.

He is weaned off the boob entirely now. He was only on like 5 mins in the morning because my nipples were so sore and when he had Hand, Foot and Mouth disease his mouth was too sore to suck and my milk had almost gone anyway - I am a bit sad in a way but it happened so gradually and without a lot of fuss or demands for milk that I feel lucky that it went so smoothly.

We are going to the inlaws for Christmas but we are getting there Christmas Eve afternoon and leaving Boxing Day early morning. We stayed home last year and will do next year too.

The house stuff is a nightmare. We may have subsidence which is covered by the insurance but it seems quite likely that it is something called lateral movement that isn't. I am still selling the flat so hopefully someone will buy it and we can use some of the profit to fix this place up. We have to wait a few months so the insurance people can measure how fast the cracks are growing. Very depressing.

I am 20 weeks tomorrow - so officially half way. We don't have the anomaly scan until 22 weeks, so still a couple of weeks to go. We are going to find out the sex. At the 12 week scan the lady said she was 80% sure it was a girl. We'll see. I honestly don't mind. I felt a bit sad when she said girl because I thought of what good friends brothers would be. Anyway I'm sure they will be good friends whatever the gender of the new one. I went to Blood Pressure clinic this week and everything is still ok. They want to see me again for an extra scan at 28 weeks. My BP is fine at the moment.

Sorry for such a lengthy post - lots of love to all of you. x

Oh and he knows all the names of the characters on Abney and Teal. I love the way he says "poc poc".

We tried to explain to him about the baby and we thought he understood because he patted my tummy and said "Babby" but then he did it to DH's belly as well.

I bet when the bump is bigger he'll get it bear He sounds like he's doing really well. So sorry about your house, sounds so stressful and :( about that little boy

Well, me and Nigel are back from two hours at the pub meeting some local MNers. They were all pregnant and DS turned on the charm. I love how portable they are at this age.

BC lovely to hear from you, and what a nightmare on the house . But great news on you being 20wks . How are you feeling? Hope some of the early symptoms have settled a bit.
When I expected dd2, dd1 kept referring to my baby belly, her bear belly (teddy bear stuffed under top!), and for a laugh I did mention at one point dh had a beer belly.... (He didn't think that was so funny)

PA that sounds interesting. Haven't considered meeting other MNs but then I am terribly unsociable in RL.

Oh and I think we are going to get a memoryfoam mattress topper too - what brand do you think is best PA?