July 2010: It's about time, that we all went back to rhyme!

[Spirael]

Though mutiny is always an option.

mlic hope your dh isnt getting ill as well for your sake, I too am ignoring dh's talk of size 6 and eat my gingerbread reindeer safe in the knowledge my dh would not want me to be a size 6!
woodlands I love the way some exaggerate on fb, the first time I got flu I didnt move for 3 weeks and didnt even have the energy to go toilet on my own, the last time I got it I still dont believe I had it when the doc said I did as he said it was a milder strain, whatever it was though I couldnt look after L!
I have had an L free morning and finished painting the kitchen and attempted to hang the wallpaper and failed, think the paste was too thick, I need to attempt it with dh guiding me because I have lost a drop of paper and now only have 2.5 rools with the wallpaper being discontinued!

We were only out 2 hours. Not a lot to comment on, was ok as funerals go. D had half an hour nap in the car but that's all he's had.

It's nice to have dh here though :)

Only 2.5 rools left memph? [I have a long memory emoticon]

So: E has clothes on now as his temperature seems to have settled. He has just asked for some 'nice crispies' which is the first food he's asked for in days so that's progress (he's even been off fruit, which he normally can't get enough of) W has cried a lot this aft but only had about 50 mins sleep from 11.30 to 12.20 and is rolling his eyes he's so tired but he wouldn't give in earlier and now I won't let him, it's too close to bedtime! So it's no wonder he's whingy.

I've just noticed his trouser leg is all wet at the bottom. He's obviously been stood in the dog water again then

I just text him memph and he said he's not feeling worse than this morning, but that he doesn't want tea - bonus!

I'm most definitely not a size 6

gracie you're right re rest, on Monday I walked all the way to the local shops (just over a measly mile there and back) and I was in agony all afternoon and night. Yesterday I only walked about 500 yds to the hospital and back and I was fine. DH has the car tomorrow and the group is about 20mins walk away, it just seems so pathetic to take a taxi but I know what'll happen if I try to walk it [frustrated]

woodlands it was really kind of you to offer! I get a bit wibbly if I offer to look after a child older than L cos I have no idea what to expect!

viks the scan was because they're not sure if there might be a problem with the placenta which is affecting his growth.

I've got the GP at 16.20 which is a crap time to go out but for some reason I can't ever get any earlier.

mlisc result on the semi-sick DH poor man, I don't mean it but nice you don't have to worry about cooking for him. Glad E's picking up a bit, it awful when they're off their food.

memphis you'll have to post pics of your favourite room once you've finished.

I'm doing homemade hampers of sorts for christmas but it's not working out any cheaper than buying everyone something - food has got so expensive lately!

chu at least the app wasn't in the middle of nap time that really annoys me!

I've been looking more into doing a medical secretary course and the one that starts next sept is about 40 mins drive but we were planning on having another baby by then so I've got to decide whether to do the course first then have next baby or the other way round but the course could potentially be moved to another campus miles away do unrealistic to drive to plus trying to do an evening course with 2 children. Ooh dilemma!

mlic am i imagining it or do you dislike cinnamon (odd girl if so ). it's just i've made some really yummy apple crumble muffins. altho if you still just want to use yoghurt up it won't be much use to you.

how annoying re the wallpaper memph what will you do? lovely to have you back btw!

i don't mind looking after other children chul cos i've had our friends' dd here so much so am used to entertaining a few at once but aside from her (who eats very much what my two do) i do find feeding other children quite tricky hard as i'm used to chucking anything in front of my two and they'll hoover it up whereas other children usually have a specific set dislikes which isn't always easy to interpret so i usually fall foul of that somehow. when Dh's niece was here for a weekend last year i think she survived on fruit shoots, crisps, sweets and jam sandwiches altho we weren't sure if that was normal for her or not anyway.

did a classic in the library earlier - walked in, smelt poo, checked A straight away and a women sheepishly piped up 'oh sorry, it's my son. i'm about to take him to be changed now' anyway, poor thing was just frazzled - 4 boys, the two in the middle were twins - and they were everywhere. she made me feel a bit guilty about feeling fed up with my little pair today!

i'm grumpy and tired - not like me but dh is away on business overnight and i'm not relishing doing it all on my own.

just bought a nice selection of my fave things from waitrose (veggie sushi, dolmades, antipasti etc) to nibble on later plus the muffins so won't need to cook for myself.

Yes cake you're right, I don't like cinnamon, well remembered!

Sorry you're tired and grumpy doing bedtime alone. DH has come home looking like he's a bit poorly...oh dear

Ahh pressed post by accident! The recipe sounds yummy though, surely I could just show the spice pot to the mixture and pretend I added it? If so I'd like to try them please! I made a hot meal last night so used the yogurt to cool it down a bit, not bothered about throwing the rest away now.

Baby went tantrumingly mental (like my new adjective? ) when I put the lid on his tommee tippee cup of milk tonight, so I took it off and he drank loads just out if the beaker on his own! Last night he wouldn't drink it out a beaker (now I realise why) so I ended up having to give him milk at 4.30am. Wonder if tonight's milk makes a difference, fingers crossed! Vik how did you get on with dropping D's bottle?

Chul I know what you mean. I debated making lots of stuff but didn't due to cost.

My period is late only by 2 days but I'm so worried about it.

Go and get a test! (Assuming you haven't already that is...)

I've got one I'm just waiting until tomorrow morning to do it. Dh dosn't want to know anything about it so I'll be doing it all by myself :(

What do you mean he doesn't want to know anything about it? :(

You're stronger-willed than I - I would have to do it tonight!

Oops that probably came out a bit wrong I ment the testing bit he says we've been so careful that there's no way I could be pg so he doesn't want to do a test but I have to know now (well tomorrow morning) :)

Blimey dylth how would you feel?

mlic I'll look for that recipe when madam's down and I'm on my mac. Not sure what they'd be like without cinnamon tho they also have other spices so you could use a mixture sans cinnamon. They're my fave muffins tho more time-consuming than most what with the prep of the apple and the crumble. Well worth it tho. F and A ate a maffis one each for pud.

I know I always say it but I really don't know why how you do it all on your own. I'm Fucked from doing everything myself today and dreading a solo night-time, not to mention morning/nursery run. That's the down-side of a hands-on dh, you get reliant on them doing half of everything and so feel useless on your own!

And I know I always say it but I really, honestly don't see the problem with solo bedtime Especially now they're old enough to not really need anything from me other than to help them into their pyjamas, clean their teeth and tuck them in/read. What exactly do you find hard about it and I can see if I have any suggestions for you to make you chill a bit things easier?

It's the 'crumble' bit of the recipe that grabs my attention - I really like the sound of them so more than willing to try them sans spice :) TIA

dylthan I dont get ur DH, you have to test..............and get on here straight away and let us know!!
mylife sounds like urs are as good as gold at bed time, D is a bit of a bugger, he doesnt want his nappy/pj on at all and would be happy to run around in the buff for ages, he cries when i make him have nappy and pj's on but then he LOVES his story now, so i can totally see how much hard work bed time with two will be!
Re his bottle, the doidy cup is ok at meal time but not great at other times so i have been chopping and changing a bit but he drank well out of a little tommy tippie non spill cup earlier, im still offering him some night time milk for fear of night time fall out. He got hold of a really small apple earlier and eat the lot, i have never given him a whole apple before and when i give it to him in chunks he chews it and usually spews it out. I just hope it doesnt give him a poorly belly as it ws right before bed.
Regarding teeth brushing, i do D's in the bath (particularly unsuccessfully as he wants to do it himself and just chews on the brush!)but then he goes on to have his milk, how do u manage to do W's teeth without making a giant mess??
dh sounds like u had a decent day really, did he settle well tonight?

right here's the recipe online: happyfoody.com/2009/05/07/apple-pie-crumb-cake-muffins/ my recipe is in weight instead so if you prefer that let me know and i'll give you the details.

the crumble stuff turned out wetter than i thought (when i was mixing it) but i may have put too much oil in so i then added an extra Tbs of flour and sugar. it was great once cooked anyway so who knows...?

i used normal sugar (not raw), plain white flour and apple juice instead of cider

i think they're ace so hope you do too

re bedtime - it's the whole finding the motivation to do it all once i've had them all day on my own thing plus knowing it'll be ages til i've got some me-time.

firstly i HATE having to help him tidy up his room when i feel like it's the 800th time we've tidied toys that day, he's tired and not that interested in putting his trains away, A is fast untidying everything we've just tidied.

we read 3 books and sing/do actions to 3 nursery rhymes - when dh is here we're doing it together it's great but when i'm on my own and brain-dead, it's a pain in the arse (did only 2 of each tonight tho [bad mummy])

it's also tricky trying to bf A and read to F then put him to bed whilst she needs more milk but he's upset cos he knows she's still up after him.

it;s a tad easier these days as F will usually go to sleep on his own for me (apparently won't for dh, who stays in his room) but A won't go down on her own since getting in a bad habit since teething with her molars - i cuddle her til she falls asleep, tonight it took ages so i didn't come downstairs til 8.20pm i know i need to work on her going to sleep on her own again, i've just been waiting for a tiny window of non-teething.

sorry - sounds like i think i've got it terrible - i do realise we all have to do this. i'm only listing the bits i find a pain cos you've asked me quite cathartic tho!

dh medical secretarys are hard to come by around here, my step mum is one and earns more than most people I know by doint ft hours working 3 days 9.15 til 2! everytime she wants a payrise she threatens to leave and they up her pay!
dylthan lets us know as soon as you have taken the test, how would you feel if it was positive?
chulita I know my fave will be the dining/kitchen/toyroom, I love the colour will just have to wait til new year to get a new dining set and bar stools for the breakfast bar!
cakes Im hoping we wont mess up again with wallpaper and we will be fine. I actually got the paper from next! it wasnt in the book, it was in the x mas add ons page on the website, never went into the book, dont think it was 'Nexty' enough for them, my friend kept telling me to look at it and I was saying no I hate next home but I love it!! they said in store they didnt know why it wasnt going to be carried on!

cakes although I love dh being hands on as his hours are so mad he isnt home in time to help a lot of the time so im used to doing it alone but I hate doing the bathtime on my own, im not fun enough to play with! he wont play with me so I play with toys at one end and he 'swims' and plays at the other!

Haha! Glad you feel better for writing it down

You will both keel over with amazement when I say I think bedtime works fine for me cos I'm a strict mama

Vik - 'good as gold' is hardly the phrase I would have chosen, but they both just know the drill. E will protest a bit - more so since he's starting to feel on the mend tonight - we had a bit of a barney as he insisted he would not have his pyjamas on, thank you, and he was going down the stairs after his bath. Thank you.

Erm, no thank you

WRT motivation, my motivation is precisely that it is bedtime! At 6pm I breathe a sigh of relief because the following hour is just time ticking away until bedtime. Its another reason why I always run a bath (although only W got in tonight, E didn't want to) as it 'breaks up' bedtime and I actually find it easier to get them to calm down.

So - out of the bath, after he's dried E just watches tv/plays with his cars on my bed/plays in his bedroom while I dry baby off and put his pyjamas on. Until a few nights ago I would then give him a bottle, but now he's started having milk before we go up for bath. WRT cleaning teeth, the key is to not wet the toothbrush before you start, and to only put a scraping of toothpaste on it (as advised for littlies, otherwise they can swallow lots of flouride)

E only has one train track in his room and a wooden 3 storey car park. He is anal about lining up all the cars before he goes to bed anyway and the train track is always in pieces thanks to his wind up merchant of a younger brother but it gets left there, just as it is.

Baby into bed, kiss, night night, leave. He has done this since day dot and doesn't cry. Or if he does it's very, very brief.

E into bed and he gets stories (if he wants - he sometimes says no). He cries when I leave his room and says mammy please don't go but (a) he needs his sleep, to pander to him would just deprive him from sleep he needs and will be grumpy the next day if he doesn't get and (b) I have tea to cook. My motivation for leaving his room at 7pm is that if I don't, I don't eat at 7.30pm. Leave his room later, eat later.

Sorry for the epic post

cake my motivation for getting them to bed is that the sooner I do it the sooner I get time to myself :). Actually it's fine now if A stays up a bit, I let her stay up half an hour later last night as dh was on his way home, she just sat on the sofa really quietly while I did stuff.

I start the tidy up about 6ish, I sometimes use pure bribery (small biscuit or whatever) as motivation for A to help me. Yes I know I should be teaching her to do it because it's her responsibility yadda yadda yadda but actually G makes half the mess. Anyway, she helps with the promise of a treat at the end. During this time G has a bottle of milk and untidies things a bit. Obv I can get on with doing stuff while she has her milk which you can't because of bfing.

About 10 to 7 it's pyjamas on, maybe a little snack for G in a futile attempt to make her sleep longer in the morning, G goes into sleeping bag, teeth and straight into bed, I don't stay with her, she just goes off to sleep - we're lucky that she doesn't seem to suffer much with teething. Sometimes I put her down a bit later in another futile attempt to make her sleep longer.

Then A into pjs, goes to the toilet, brushes teeth, a couple of stories and that's it. Sometimes she mucks about a bit calling for stuff but I'm usually free from that point on, about 7.15.

When dh is home he usually does A's bedtime and I do G.

Dylthan do you have any other symptoms? HOw do you feel about the possibility?

Ha, x-posted with mlisc, I see our motivation for getting the dcs to bed is exactly the same

Yes that's exactly what I meant wss by 'my motivation is that it is bedtime' - the sooner it's done, the sooner I get some time to myselfish

The hardest part for me doing solo bedtime, isn't the bedtime, but the fact that I'm simultaneously sorting tea. So I am often seen running up and down the stairs between 'jobs' to turn the oven on/put something in the oven/turn the rice cooker on/turn the steamer on etc etc. That is the only part I find stressful tbh