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

[Spirael]

Though mutiny is always an option.

ah, you'll love these babies memph: happyfoody.com/2009/05/07/apple-pie-crumb-cake-muffins/. they're a bit more fiddly to make than normal muffins but not hard and the effort's worth it.

i used apple juice not cider
i don't bother peeling the apples tho grate them to the peel iykim?
normal sugar not raw
i make a bit of extra topping as i like it lots! it's not as crumbly as you'd expect
canola=rapeseed oil

A fucking shitty crappy awful night. D has a cough which keeps waking him up. Came in our bed at 10, didn't settle til at least half 10. Dh came home at 11:45 and D woke up. Gave him water and he was farting around, moaning, kicking the covers off til half 1 when we gave him calpol. He settled after about 20 mins then woke at 4am then 7am.

I'm having my hair cut today and my mum is going to take him round town while im in there so at least I get some respite today, I really need it.

sounds crapoloa dh, hope you get a break today.

help please - anyone got tips for getting medicine down 16mo? i'm having a mare with A's antibiotics - she justs spits it straight out. tried spoon and syringe. I've managed 2 and nursery managed 2 but she's now not up for it all.

wow - where is everyone?!! quietest ever

I actually gave up on the abx cake. It smelt horrible, must have tasted awful and he just wouldn't take it. Is it worth ringing your GP and asking if there's anything else she can have? I think the orange penicillin is particularly offense if she has that.

No more talk of the pancake house :( We're home now. We set off nice and early but then E was sick twice on the way home :( He seems fine now though, he loves his mobigo

Happy Birthday E (it was today, wasn't it mlic?) and welcome back home.

Just quickly cake: If M doesn't want to take medicine, we put it in the syringe, DP holds her "like a baby" with her head slightly lower than the rest of the body and I slowly, slowly squirt it in while she sobs. HTH

S is currently on yellow antiB's and he loves it which makes it easy. If they won't take it I sit them on my knee, pin everything that flails down, squirt it in slowly and press a muslin against their mouth so they can't dribble it out. Horrible though and no fun for anyone :(

I'm not on today because I'm being driven slowly insane by my 2, don't feel great and need a holiday sans enfants for about a week I think.

It is yes, thanks Trudy

The house looks like a bomb has gone off. E threw up twice on the way home so had to strip the car seat as soon as we walked in the wash it. I'm glad, like the true housewife I am, I did a couple of loads of washing whilst we were there instead of bringing it all home. I still seem to have loads to do though.

Got a lovely welcome from the dogs. Whilst I didn't miss them even slightly whilst we were away it was nice to see them when we got back

Trying both those methods didn't work with W. He still managed to squirt it out of the sides of his mouth. Or hold onto it until I took the muslin away as I thought he'd swallowed it and then spit it all out

He slept 10.10 to 10.45 in the car so lord only knows how the rest of the day will pan out.

Sorry you're being driven demented chul :(

mlisc happy birthday to E :)

cake I have only had to give antibiotics once to D and I couldn't get him to take it but dh could do it no problem. He used to work on a farm and apparently found it very similar to giving medicine to sheep

cakes that recipe will be done next week sometime, looks lovely!
on the anti B's I cant help, L loves any medicine and asks for 'more' well apart from orange nurofen which he still took but shuddered after like I do if I have a shot of vodka!
chulita hope you get a rest at some point, you seem to be doing so well though with SPD and two toddlers, I would lock myself in a room alone!
mlic hope you get all your washing done, love your picture of the family! Sad that E was sick? is he travel sick or as it withdrawals from the pancake house? Im going to go straight there if we manage to get there on my birthday!

Work is manic at the mo, my mum has apparently had all her hair cut off like Lulu's while she has been relaxing, but she is still rough, one more day at work then relax on Sunday! I had a letter today from my bank for some reason they didnt allow any of my direct debits from the bank last week, dont know why but now im getting charged £15 per DD and they wont budge on it and I havent got the energy to argue! grr

Rang docs today, spoke to receptionist and explained about L's teething, screaming every night and minimum of 4 and up to 10 poops a day, he has never just had one, she got a doc on the phone and they are concerned, I said he is so happy everyday all day and everytime I bring him to the docs they say ooh hes too happy to be ill and I feel bad for taking him, but come 5pm he wont eat and gets a temp every day, im sick of being told its a virus so they want to see him monday morning, hope they do something, dont know what but im exhausted, my illness symptoms are creeping back, im petrified that if they get worse I wont be able to care for L! sorry for rant/worry waffle

Hope you get something sorted with him memph

I don't know what it was with E. He's not normally travel sick, no. He has been an utter pain in the arse tonight. The holiday has turned him into a bedtime-monster. He screams and refuses to go to bed now DH has been lying with him on a night until he fell asleep. I knew he was making a rod for --my- his own back and I was right. I eventually got him to sleep at 9 fucking 10pm. And that was only by bribing him to stay in bed otherwise I'd cancel his party tomorrow :(

Things can be a bit up and down over Christmas, I don't mind that. But he will get a sharp shock when he starts pre school in less than 4 weeks.

A used to be great at going to bed and suddenly a month or so ago she just realised that she could come out of her room again and again and again...As I just put on Fb, I threaten her with Santa not coming! I do lie with her for a bit as she's going to sleep but not till she is asleep - she's taking till about 8/8.15 to go off whereas she used to be asleep by 7.30 latest.

The Supernanny approach is that you don't talk to them or engage with them, you just put them straight back in bed and leave, apparently they eventually get bored of getting out of bed because they are getting no reaction. I watched one episode where they had to do it (it's called Rapid Return) 57 times in an evening or something ridiculous but by the third night of it the child wasn't leaving the room at all.

In his case it could be all the excitement of the holiday etc...

Happy birthday to him and to tsc's K!

Oh and anybody's else's toddler emptying the fridge? G has just learnt to open the door and yesterday took everything out about 10 times, opening yoghurts, throwing (plastic) bottles around etc. I have just bought a fridge lock but need to wait till the evening to put it on as they set the adhesive sets better overnight when fridge door isn't being opened and closed a lot.

They can't reach my fridge door but yes at my mam's I'm forever taking eggs off them

I've seen that before wss. I am really worried about tomorrow night now though because he'll be hyper after his party but we're supposed to be going out tomorrow night. I want him asleep before I go

thanks all for the suggestions. A's very strong-willed when she's really against something and like mlic's W she just spits it back out however i get it in. i'm not exactly pussy-footing around after a lifetime of chucking worming tablets down cats' necks either

never had this problem with F - he asks for medicine all the time i even got him to take a bit of A's today hoping she's get jealous and want it [deluded mother]

i've managed to get the last two doses down her by mixing it with juice. she's not really a juice fiend - she usually only has water except a breakfast but she's drunk most of it. phew!

mlic welcome back! hope E's better again quickly.

i've given up with F and bedtime whilst dh deals with it as its a disaster. he'll go down fine on his own for me but plays dh up for ages. probably would make sense to swap which child we put down actually it's just i'm usually still bf A when dh is attempting to put him down. maybe we'll swap when A weans.

memph that sounds really tough. i'm glad they've finally taken notice and i hope they do something about it.

those muffins are lovely - i wish you were making them for me

had a lovely evening with dh - just back from his course. got the sofa bed out and {CENSORED} then ate snacks, drank vino and watched TV til i got bored and got my mac out.

wss mine have never been into opening cupboards, the fridge etc so have never needed locks. they do it very occasionally but the layout of our house (not open-plan at all) means i'm nearly always near them so can intervene quickly.

oh and madam's teething AGAIN

No, A ws never really into opening the cupboards and fridge etc, hence me not having any locks from first time round. G is a whirlwind though - she literally empties the fridge - and even if I'm there and move her away she just goes straight back to it and I can't be bothered having to remove her 50 times a day.

Medicine - we just hold flat like a little baby and use a syringe, we have a syringe that kind of squirts out of several little holes in the sides not out of the end, she seems to object less to that.

We don't have a door on the kitchen so have put a stairgate there instead - he protests maffisly if he isn't allowed in when we're in there so I'm afraid I normally let him in, unless i'm grilling something so it would be dangerous. He hasn't yet figured out opening the fridge/freezer doors so it's not an issue yet!

Medicine - we've (touch wood) only ever had to give calpol/nurofen so far and he likes them a lot. Not sure how anti-bs would go down!

So J is finally properly walking, at almost 17 months... walking has finally overtaken crawling as the main method of getting around. It's exciting! I never tire of watching him wobble around on two legs.

D ended up in our bed, I had to re settle him 3 times before we went to bed but he kept coughing and waking himself up. He came in with us at 10 and took a while to settle but he slept til half 7. I woke around 4 sandwiched between D and DH and not v comfy.

We were planning on going to the cinema today but not sure now as D is so clingy because he's not well. Going to see how he is later. He's having 2 naps a day again but only v short ones.

Ah that's nice woodlands It's great to see them learn and develop isn't it

Well E redeemed himself by sleeping until 8.15am. I had to get up and give W a bottle at 5am, but then went back to sleep.

You'll be pleased to hear the holiday has improved my confidence a bit with dh. I told him last I'm going shopping this morning and only taking one child

wooohooo i hope your shopping trip goes well and dh is up for doing it again in future.

The sickness bug found us

M was violently sick 7 times last night and didn't sleep for.one.minute. Poor, poor baby.

Interesting logistics trying to keep the bug from F. My hands have hardly any skin from all the washing and disinfecting.

How long do those viruses normally last? Please, please be gentle and not honest

trudy F should have some resilience from bfing, he's got extra protection :) They vary hugely but are normally over in a couple of days.

Happy shopping mlic, which one are you taking? I'd opt for L every time over S on a shopping trip, she's far more fun!

cake A is a non-stop teether isn't she?

wss S likes our sideboard but doesn't bother with the kitchen stuff, it's all a bit tricky to open, even L struggles. He runs around the kitchen all the time, grilling or not, simply because I can't keep him out without a gate on the door which means he screams at me and drives me bonkers. I just have to stay very close to the grill or hold him so he doesn't do anything stupid.

memphis I hope they come up with something, it's definitely worth pressing them. Just cos he's happy doesn't mean there's not something that can be done to help him. Getting a fever every night isn't right either. Could your dh pop into the bank and query the charges for you? that doesn't sound right at all, I didn't realise they could do that!

My parents came down for the weekend so we could go out for a meal but I forgot to book and we spent an hour driving round trying to find somewhere with space. I ended up crying all the way home cos I felt so stupid for forgetting and frustrated cos we've not had any time just the two of us for soooooooo long and it all went tits up :( DH has taken them both out with my parents this morning and I've got so much done it's incredible! Sorted out all the bedrooms, 3 lots of washing, dishes, filing and now I'm sat down with a cuppa and a croissant. It is lovely not to have them for a bit, deffo jealous of mlic 's Friday mornings now!

Ah bless you chul! Sorry you couldn't find somewhere :( That so isn't an issue in my neck of the woods - nowhere is nice enough to be fully booked

I took W just because dh copes better with E. It was a tactical move - to make it 'easy' enough to do it again next time! W still moaned the whole way round, but it was nice not having to keep an eye on E all the time! W might moan, but at least he does it whilst confined to a trolley seat!