Dec 08 Mums - happy new year, happy new thread and soon some happy new babies!

[sybilfaulty]

Happy new year!

Sorry for the rubbish title but wanted to get the new thread underway. Let's close the door on some of the sad events of 2011 and look forward to a better year in 2012.

Treasure hunt for Summer!

We held it in the garden so warned parents to bring warm clothes and wellies.

We did 8 clues with either a picture or little rhyme that DH read out. They had to find a balloon, garden spade, bear (hidden up tree), chair, slide etc and finally a picture of an Apple tree. We covered a tin with tin foil, filled it with chocolate coins and buried it underneath.

It started to rain but it didn't seem to matter! They were all so excited when they found the treasure!

Oh gosh. I've written all my thank you letters apart from the ones to my inlaws and my parents. So much I want to say that I can't quite bring myself to do it. I'm not in the right frame of mind. Think will have to wait til tomorrow. But I have shopped, hoovered and ironed in a frenzy, which is a start.

JB that treasure hunt sounds brilliant. I want to be more like you as a parent.

Hello all! Quick question for those whose second child is same gender as first one, and ideally has a birthday within a couple of months of Christmas (would check the grand spreadsheet but am at work!)

What the heck do you give them for presents?! E turns 1 in two weeks and basically all the things she will ever need, she will inherit from S, or has been given by GPs for Christmas*. She has books, toys, clothes etc. I can't in all honesty think of anything to give her! I know the best present is my time (sob) but she's a bit too small to appreciate that right now...!

• we gave S a pair of PJs and two books, and E a pair of PJs for Christmas, and yet when I counted the parcels under the tree there were 35 for the girls from various relatives. And of course S got tons of things for her birthday too. It's madness... Oh and may I have a small gripe? S has suddenly been given loads of branded pink things - Peppa fleece and jeans and several pink cardies - even though we have frequently said No pink please! and she has no idea who Peppa pig actually is. I feel a bit cross about this, not sure if I'm being reasonable or not.

JB - totally love that treasure hunt idea! Will write it down and try to remember for next year...

JJ B didn't have a party, cake or present this year. He got stuff from others, and, like in your household, has plenty of toys to play with. I wouldn't sweat it, to be honest we on;y gave him a token gift so that T couldn't say in years to come that he didn't get anything.

Wow, beans, what a lovely thing to say! I shall cling to that lovely compliment the next time I'm at the tend of my tether singing 'guide me o'thou great redeemer' at the top of my lungs.

For clarification re the treasure hunt, I didn't make it clear that the clues were attached to the found object. E.g. The bear in the tree had a pic of a balloon on it etc.

JJ For christmas we wrapped up a selection of DD1's old toys and books so that J had things to open. L didn't seem to recognise them but I removed them a while ago. For her birthday I will attempt the same trick and bring out the baby walker trolley . When they get a bit older we're going to suggest that grandparents contribute money towards things like swimming and eventually music lessons.

I'm rather in awe of you managing no pink and no Peppa Pig! I find it almost impossible to make a purchase as simple as a pair of wellies without having a choice of pink or blue. I may have bored you all with this already but a shop assistant in Clarks brought out said wellies and said 'well you'll want the lovely pink ones won't you because you're a girl' to DD.

Thanks jolly, turns out hardly anyone is coming to poor Ds's party (whereas our house was overrun for dd's) so think we will just pretend it is just playing with a cake rather than do anything much this time.

I think we just bought DD a pushchair for her birthday (6 quid from Asda), which we full well knew DS would like too. It is pink though! Strange to buy your DD peppa pig stuff if they don't know she likes it? (maybe it was reduced!). My two are peppa bloody pig mad. On that theme has anyone had to watch the gruffalo and gruffalo's child about 1 million times this holiday?

On pressies could you get dd2 something old for her age, like some duplo or something to go with brio train set, or books that dd1 could like too?

beans I never write thankyou letters to my parents or MIL. is that strange? Just as I speak to them and they are usually there to give the presents.

How nice about the voucher! This reminds me, I won a 50 quid theatre voucher for the cambridge arts theatre at DH's work do raffle. It was quite amusing as a) we won the big prize last year too (massive hamper) b) just before announcing I had won, I said in a slightly too loud (drunk) voice, "oh I bet someone with kids who never gets to go out wins this..", and then they read out my number. So you lot have to help me decide what to go and see, this www.cambridgeartstheatre.com/pages/whatson01.html is what's on. (we fancied footlights but DH away with work for that)

Oh and arti yes please to the bletchley book.

Off to bed, didn't sleep properly last night so knackered.

Oh also on the pink thing - it seems to me that people of my parents generation find this strange (if you say no pink - i don't actually say this despite not really liking loads of pink stuff - but I have a friend who does). Apart from my MIL, who has decided she is buying no pink for DD despite me not having specified it.

Also they think it is SHOCKING that I bought my nephew a pushchair and a doll for his Xmas present, despite the fact that he TOTALLY loved it.

Treasure hunt sounds fabulous. May do one and if the weather is fine go out and do it. We are in typical NorthEast mining terrace so no outdoor space to do it, we'd have to go up to the park which is only up the back road, takes 30 seconds and I happily leave ds in there for 5 mins by himself while I run back to take dd to the loo or get a bike/scooter/ball out of the shed but with 7 of them I might lose one on the way!

Presents I think get easier when the second is turning 2. I know mine are of different genders but when they are turning 2 then they are into things like duplo and brio so you can add to the collection rather than buying something totally separate. Also helps with storage! We now have vast quantities of lego and playmobil having just about left the duplo stage behind us. We have vast quantities of that too . I do find people buying for girls annoying though, they just don't think outside of the "girl" market do they? Relatives ring up saying they have loads of ideas for ds but not for dd. Ok she got some good stuff and MIL is good at not being too girly (she got her the playmobile campervan for birthday and vet set for christmas) but the things dd plays with most from this year are the lovely wooden fire engine ds got and also his new castle and knights. Why does nobody think to buy anything like that for her? The fire engine is lovely and he is getting the matching station for his birthday (I know because FIL has left his birthday presents with us) but actually it is a bit young for him and better suited to dd's age!

Another option with presents is pointing out that with winter birthdays your dcs end up missing out on new summer stuff. Things like scooters and bikes can overlap so no harm the younger one having her own. Things like sandpits, paddling pools, football goals, trampolines etc make great joint presents (I suggest joint for Christmas of course not birthdays, they each need their special day) so you could ask relatives to give perhaps a token present of a book or a few pocket money toys like spinning tops, wind up caterpillars and bubbles at Christmas (actually wind up caterpillars are the best presents ever, they keep my 2 entertained for hours) and then they can have an outside toy given in the spring. Christmas 2010 we got ours a sandpit, it was opened adn then went straight into the loft and was forgotten about by them but they then played in it all summer long.

The pink thing drives me mental. I think girls dressed top to toe in that barbie pink is horrible. My niece is always in some pink thing, yuck. If we ever had a third and it was a girl I would prob never put her in pink.

Well back to nursery and school today, missing them already I just dont feel we had enough fun time. Think its because we were all so poorly throughout the holidays and it is only in the last few days that we were all well again. [grumpy]

I guess it gives me the morning to get the house straight. The last few weeks have been an exercise in moving piles of toys to various rooms and quickly chucking the hoover round before the next lots of visitors arrive.

Will go back and read up now I have had my moan.

Oh Happy New Year all!

Dd does have quite a lot of pink I'm afraid. She likes to have a say in her clothing choices! Pink, purple, flowers, cute animals and frills are her main choices. Even her pjs are all pink, I tried to steer her towards teh cute blue ones with cats on but she was having none of it. Oh well. Since her brother's fave colours are pink and purple there isn't much I can do! Mind you she will also be the first one rolliing around in a muddy puddle or half way up a tree, she will just be doing it while wearing a pink tutu and proclaiming that she is a princess .

I'm with Indith - I am actively anti-pink as was a total tomboy as a child, but DD1 loves it. It's her absolute favourite colour and I can safely say I've never encouraged it!

My Mum got our best Xmas present this year. I'd asked her for a scuttlebug thing for DD2 as DD1 has just got a scooter. They had a waiting list of 4 weeks for one, so she got the closest thing to it. Unbeknownst to her, it's a motorised little motor bike. It's bright pink and yellow, but it's brilliant and DD1 and 2 ride around the house on it for ages. DD2 hasn't really got the hang of steering yet and spends quite a lot of time driving it while it's up against the wall. Brilliant. It's a bit noisy, though.

How much is a stamp to France?

I will go against the grain here and say I love pink and would really love to buy some pick baby clothes

I was a strange child. Dressed mainly in jeans and pink tops but always out playing football, riding my bike and climbing trees. I always had something pink on though.

I just went to see MW and she found the heartbeat after about 10 nerve wracking minutes. It's hiding in my pelvis and doesn't seem to want to be helpful.
Extremely relieved now.

I'm not anti-pink but find it frustrating that it seems to be the default option for girls. I've never bought a 'big' item in pink like car seats, travel cots, play tables etc as our second DC might have been a DS! Like Beans I was a tomboy. Plus having an older brother wore brown cordroy handmedowns mostly. DD1 declares that pink is her favourite colour and it makes me cringe. I don't know why really, I don't hate it but it just makes me feel a bit, bleugh! I'm trying to steer her away from pink as it doesn't too much for DD2's complexion. Pale pink and ginger hair makes her skin look yellow. She looks good in red though which I wouldn't have expected.

kayz Great news on HB.

That's good Kayz.

I'm not anti pink at all, it is just a colour but it annoys me when the options for things are blue or pink with no other choices. If I want to buy a tea set then why should I have to choose either pink for my daughter or blue for my son? It makes me rage. Do I buy the blue one because it is the one that isn't pink? Or is that just as bad? What happened to toys in a nice range of primary colours, or even, god forbid, a kitchen or set of pans in realistic colours? I know they do exist but they usually cost a fortune, the bog standard cheaper ranges of toys are all gender specific. I got the dcs scooters for their birthdays and ended up with a blue one and a pink one because those were the only 2 choices and of course I needed different colours so they could tell them apart. The new lego range pisses me off for the same reasons, I have no problem with expanding the range to cover a wider range of interests but I am furious that they have made all of that new range of shops, cafes etc specifically "girly" and pastel coloured with thinner, taller girl figures. The lovely thing about lego was that things came in realistic colours not pastel ones.

Oh my GOD! After reading your post, Indith, I looked at lego website and am quite shocked by the new girlie range. Fair enough to do something for girls, but to make the dolls thinner and taller is quite shocking. Hmmm.

Hello, hello, hello!!

Firstly I have to say that after weeping like a right fool this morning dropping DS at pre-school,he has had a lovely day! He behaved very well,ate all his lunch and basically didn't miss being at home one bit! Hooray...but still a bit that my my baby is no longer a baby!

Re: pink. DD is a very girly girl and loves all things pink! This is despite the fact that when we used to buy toys etc I usually opted for the bold red/orange/blue variations rather than the 'girly pink' versions. Still she loves pink, loves barbie etc. Having said that she is the kind of girl that climbs the trees in her Princess dress up gear whilst wearing biker boots!!

Kayz Excellent news on the HB, so glad you now feel reassured

Summer I find that always happens to me re:parties. Last year for DD I invited about 10 people of whom only half could make it. This year I invited over 20 thinking only about 10 would show and they all bloody turned up!!! I'm sure DS will have a great birthday anyway.

vag if your lurking hope the holiday is still going well.

Arti How's the ear?

Right best get DS to bed, poor man is exhausted after today!

That's great DB :). It is a bit bittersweet when they settle so easily isn't it.

Dd had her second morning today. Think it is starting to sink in that she will be going every morning and she isn't sure about that! Still after a pep talk from dh she went in happily. We got told she cried for about 20 mins today but it wasn't due to settling it was over a little tykes car which doesn't surprise me one bit, she has a big thing about them, she absolutely adores them and if anyone dares to stand in her way over one she will scream. A lot. Loudly.

Oh Indith DS LOVES the little tykes cars. he has been known to quite literally knock children out of the way to get to one.

Glad it isn't just dd. She is pretty reasonable (as far as small children go) over most things but if anyone tries to take a little tykes car form her she morphs into this strange tantruming creature. At our usual toddler group she takes command of the car and drives it from table to table, she loads her baby into it, drives to the playdough and gets out for a play. Gets back in and drives to the wendy house and goes inside to make some tea. Comes back out and expects "her" car to still be there . The hours I have spent trying to point out to her that it is perfectly fair for another child to take it if she isn't actually in it!

Ha ha Indith You have just described DS when he's in one! There are occasions he forgoes snack time in case someone takes the car if he isn't in it!

Been attempting to post and side tracked for about a week now! But Little tykes car - crikey, not long ago DS drove one straight out of Mothercare and security guy chased him straight into the carpark. Only then did he agree to get out
back later.... I'm scrub nurse in diy.....

Ah I see DS2 isn't alone in his obsession love for Little Tykes cars. He has to be persuaded by snacks to get out of it at play school. Nothing but food works to get him to leave them alone. He "drove" round toys r us yesterday.

kayz mil sounds like a nightmare. (tho mines no dreamboat currently either) Glad to catch up at once and get to the 'phew, heartbeat' post! Great news on DP's job too and getting back by due date.
Indith DS started his new nursery this week and last for settling sessions and starts his 15 hours next Monday. DD has been for settling as well and they both start a full day on Mon DD will just do the one full day a week and DS will do 2 full days and one afternoon session which uses up his free sessions with a lil top up. I left them there 2 hours Mon and DS doing really well. he loves his key worker and already spoke of some of the kids. He's so happy DD is there one day too as they do a little trip over to the babies room as most of the 3 y/o's have younger siblings attending. I won't know what to do with all the free time!
Lady, glad DP is on the mend albeit slowly. Hope he improved well and work is ok. Don't stress over tenant vanishing. You will rent it in that area easily I'd say, and you don't want a flakey tenant who leaves like that without warning anyway. We've had similar with DS eating recently, until I banned all milk today in cups with lids and he ate for England guess I knew what the prob was though. I'm sure DD will pick up on things when she is feeling 100%
Your trip sounds like the mini break you need. Hope to see you soon - I know we keep saying that, but really must catch up. Are there any meet ups planned as I think I've missed a fair bit.
SL - Not swearing in front of littles on my list also - you'd die if I repeated what DS said the other day, clearly picked up off me
I'm impressed with your DH buying clothes. DH wouldn't know where to start, but he did fabulously with a camera I'd wanted and forgotten about, then he bought the latest model of it and a new electric toothbrush off the kids which I LOVE it tells me off (sort of) if I don't brush for 2 min at least
Arti hope the ear gets sorted

On pink, I was totally off pink, girly, frilly, frou frou clothes, and then I had a lil girl.... I'm right into it. But I suspect I wouldn't have had to push it as dd is all about pink and ds has been a firm believer that if it's pink it's a girls and if not pink it's HIS so it's just been easier to manage their stuff if it's colour coded. Plus I think it's sweet, albeit a little unoriginal..... I'm probably lame but I do love it and they have a lot of matching stuff in the typical pink and blue
Had a lovely Xmas, and a nice quiet NY. haven't worked since mid Dec and still feel I have so much sorting to do since we moved, altho not so obvious as I'm good at hiding stuff that needs sorting!
DH busy with work and also busy slowly trying to get TV's back on walls and the like.....

Hi Ladies,
I have the telly on while I'm writing this, and there is this unbelievably vain man, who takes 2 hours to get ready every day! He he he!
I keep intending to catch up going here but then being too tired or busy or lazy. Anyway, today is the day I have been looking forward to for some time...dh is at work, L is at school and P is at nursery Tomorrow is my birthday but I'll be at work, so today is my special day! I have so far been to the GP (see below), prepared tea in the slow cooker (xmas pressie!) and been for a run [polishes halo]. It was only a 10 minute run and I couldn't have done any more My plan for the rest of today is to eat lunch, sort out my wardrobe (ie charity shop all the stuff I never wear or can't fit into anymore ), have my bloods and ECG done (see below!), pick the girls up, feed them and do bedtime (dh is at parents evening), then skype my pal, then eat yummy (hopefully) slow cooked food when dh gets in!
Anyway, I have decided to definitely start the mood stabilizers. I was undecided still but then after sitting in tears at the GP this morning, it seems I've nothing to lose by trying it. So before I can start I have to have baseline bloods and ECG done. Bit nervous but I can always stop again if it doesn't suit me.
I've entered the ballot for a place in the Great North Run too, so should find out next week if I've got a place. If not there's another ballot... I have got a training plan which should get me to 10k by end of April, then half marathon by September - eek! I know some of you ladies nip out for mega runs all the time, but this is quite major for me!
Re the pink thing, I'm really not bothered. Both girls have had their fair share of pink girlie clothes, but also have plenty of other colours. P often wears green, and L is now old enough to wear blacks and browns! But it does annoy me a bit that it can be hard to find non girly stuff. I wanted to get P a warm jumper for Christmas, not pale, not frilly, not pretty, just warm and snuggly for playing in and keeping warm. I really struggled to find a jumper at all, because it seems girls should wear cardigans, and in the end I bought her a jumper from the boys section in Gap, and she looks gorgeous in it It's a brown chunky one with a black pattern along the bottom couple of inches. Very cute!

thought I'd better post that before it got eaten.
Lady how is dh now?
rubs good to see you again. Glad you had a good Christmas.
kayz your MIL sounds unhelpful Hope your xh can get a place soon so he can have the boys with him.
beans it's great that your dad is well enough to continue the chemo.How do you feel about your mum asking you not to visit while he is having it?
jolly I like the sound of your treasure hunt! My dad used to do them for us when we were little, so I did one at dd's last party and they all loved it Simple things, eh?
It is sooooooooooo windy here and so loud! Not sure which is louder, the wind or my rumbly tum
Think it's time for lunch!