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.

House looks lovely. I love the huge kitchen/dining room with the stove. Nice price tag too.

All partied out until December, woohoo! Ds's birthday party was yesterday (birthday is Wed), just a few friends but hard work! I'm glad we are done and dusted til dd turns 4 now.

Discovering the benefits of dd being in nursery. Friend up the road popped in to help me eat leftover cake in peace and quiet. Very nice as we see each other a lot but usually while walking various children to and from school or trying to chat while the boys are beating each other up playing in the park.

Gruffalo cake sounds very ambitious! I doubt I could make anything even slightly resembling a gruffalo.

Trace - I love that house - can you link to the 'perfect' one as well and we can do a reality TV style vote on which we prefer!!!!

Trace I like the house! I love that kitchen it is fab!!

Summer The Gruffalo cake looked brilliant!

Beans How is your Dad? Has he started chemo again now? (Sorry if you have said already, baby brain)

DS1 has got impetigo and I need to keep him off school until next Monday. So he is having an extra week off school. He's not happy as he really wants to go back.

DP has a taxi booked for 3.50 am tomorrow morning so if the boys stay asleep when they wake up he will be gone I am not looking forward to him being away for so long but at the same time it's exciting as its a new job and a new part of the world for him and much better promotion chances too.

I have booked the repeat scan for Thursday afternoon. I am hoping the baby is going to be a bit more helpful and let them get some nice pictures I can then email to DP.

Hope everyone is well.

beans I just tried to link to both houses, only to discover that the 'perfect' house is no loner on t'internet, so I'm assuming it's been taken off the market or sold. Odd as it's not listed as 'sold' or 'under offer' - it's simply vanished! Which makes our decision easier if there's only 1 to decide between!
I just got in with dd1 and her friend, got a call from our estate agent about a viewer who wants to come tonight at 6.15, so started tidying and making things beautiful, then dd's friend has just done a really stinky poo in the bathroom so now the whoel of downstairs smells of poo I've got windows open a plenty!
kayz that's really hard for you and the boys that DP is going tomorrow. Hope it's not too sad for you all. Hopefully the time will fly. Good luck for the scan on Thursday.

at poo smell. Hopefully viewers with children! Perhaps start keeping a bottle of febreeze stashed away for viewing emergencies .

trace DD1 always seems to manage a poo when we are expecting visitors! A read a tip once that said spraying Mr Sheen onto the radiators and giving them a quick wipe makes the place smell 'clean' without it being an obvious air freshner smell.

Really nice house. The photos looked summery. Has it been on the market a while? You could make a cheeky offer!

summer Very impressed by the Gruffalo cake idea! Glad DS had a good party.

kayz I had lots of scans for DD2 to check her growth and she rarely complied. I spent lots of time having cold drinks and pacing the corridors! Hope your DC is more cooperative.

indith Glad the party went well.

There are nits at DD's nursery. I have a fear of nits and DD has crazy curly hair which we wash only about once a week. We just leave it inbetween. Anyone with a DC with curly hair know what I am meant to do?!

Jolly use a tea tree spray in conditioner or put some tea trea drops behind her ears. Also when you do wash her hair use a conditioner and comb it through. Sadly it's inevitable that at some point she will get it. I had it 3 times in my nanny & school career. The joys of children.

Trace not had a chance to look at property porn. But I am glad to hear you sounding more positive.

Rubes, Washington. Tres jealous.

Can't remember anything else. Oh yes Kayz bound to be a girl.

Gotta dash catching up on Sherlock. Love it.

Me too Jam. DH away this week so am immersed in celeb bb. Idiot!

me too Beans just catching up on CBB. dh home though but working sadly. How is your Dad?
Jam - it was quick trip. Had swapped for days off which fell through, then horrendous logistical childcare nightmare followed. Tears all round including mil apparently Home Sun quite early morn, then reluctantly went to the lovely neighbours house for a New (ish) Year party with the street, and turned out to be not dull at all and there I was hammered by 3pm !
First full day for both at nursery today was a huge success. Dd's eating there on her settling days was disastrous, but stick her there a full day and she ate more than she ever has at home so quite [phew-ed] dh came for the drop off too so he knows the drill for next time which helps.

Morning.

DP left this morning, he had to fly to Amsterdam and is about to take off to go to Singapore. He'll be on the other side of the world when we next talk. Seems a bit strange

Hope you are all ok.

Rubes, am so glad nursery going well. My two enjoying it at mo too. Dad doing ok. He had chemo last Thursday and usually by Tuesday he's pretty sick, but so far so good. But after 3 weeks off I guess the last batch was out of his system, so it's going to be cumulative again and it hasn't built up yet. But hoping this lot is less incapacitating as they're trying to protect his lungs.
Went back to work today. Only did 2hrs which was nice and virtually nothing to do tomorrow, so two more days off!!!
We STILL haven't exchanged on our house so tomorrow are going to have fierce words with our solicitor and if no change by Thursday we're telling them we're pulling out the next week. Humph.

Kayz, did your DP arrive ok?

Beans I hope you don't have to pull out of buying the house. I hope this batch of chemo doesn't affect your Dad too much.

DP hasn't landed yet. He should land about half 10 our time tonight. But half 6 in the morning there. He has to go to the hotel and dump his bags and then straight for a medical. After about 13 hours on a plane the last thing I would want to do is have a medical.

Exciting stuff about the scan Kayz, even if the baby wasn't fully compliant. But interesting it's more likely to be a girl, when you suspected that as well. Your boys and DP sound like they have a great relationship with each other, I think it's lovely. Hope his journey went well today?

Hurrah for tenants LadyT

Another vote for the sleepover here Beans, DD keeps telling everyone that her favourite bit of our break last week was sharing a room with her friend, and even though they both had one bad night for sleep, they didn't wake each other (just the rest of the house ). As its only one night, could set your alarm for before 6 (sorry, that sounds evil!) and whisk the early riser out of the room before she disturbs I?

Trace any further news from your viewer? I LOVE that house, especially the big kitchen and gorgeous log burner

Rubes my DD always eats like a horse at nursery (she's not too picky, so I don't have anything to grumble about, but has a titchy appetite), but for some reason she devours everything in sight at nursery. It can't be a reflection on my cooking, I'm sure . But it does always reassure that if she's not eaten much I can think that she'll catch when next at nursery. Your DD is obviously comfortable there if she's eating well

Indith I'm due in mid Feb, so we're very close then. I panicked a bit yesterday when someone asked me and I answered "next month" - too soon! You sound a bit hardcore in your exercising, running is not for me. I'm a fan of more gentle stuff like swimming or yoga, but I guess I'll have to try something different if I want to shape up ahead of my sisters wedding, especially as I don't want to consider dieting as I BF in the first couple of months (although maybe I do need to think about how much cake is necessary)

I'm very slowly making progress on sorting stuff out for baby, and I've just remembered that it'd be nice to get a gift for E from the new baby. What sort of thing have you ladies all given from 'the baby'? I think that something that DD can do on her own would be quite useful, so she can entertain herself while I feed and generally neglect her

ZJ - sticker books are always a winner while you breastfeed. And maybe a DVD of the Lion King or something???! We got DD1 a new dolly for her to play with from DD2 on her arrival. I dressed DD2 today and I suddenly realised that to the day, when DD1 was her age, DD2 was 1 week old!!! And she is wearing the very outfit that DD1 was wearing the day she first met DD2. Oh my heart hurts thinking about it. Am feeling very emotional today about them - I look at pics and can't believe that I produced such gorgeous little beasts. Does anyone else have that feeling sometimes? I'm not normally such a soppy person, but really!

I will take all your advice on the sleeping arrangements and have one bad night tonight! DH got up at 6am today to drive off to his week's job. He has the car now til Friday night. Weep! I managed to go back to sleep til DD2 woke me at 7.50am! So I think I am prepared for tomorrow morning's early start with a good night's kip.

Pleeeease can my Secret Santa reveal themselves now??? I have just finished the third in the Hunger Games trilogy. Second two aren't as good, but still a romping good read! I discovered yesterday that my 11 year old niece has also read them and loved them. Hmmmm.

I am in the middle of putting a rocket up the sellers and our solicitors at the moment on the house buying. It just doesn't seem to be going anywhere!! Grrr.

I don't have any work today, so am having a lovely relaxing day and having lunch with a friend later. I have just devoured 2 pieces of marmite on toast and am watching Jeremy Kyle. Lazy arse, moi??? So much washing and cleaning to do... Think will get stuck in after JK. YAAAAWN!

Hello. Am so sorry it's been so ridiculously long. It got to the stage when I'd been away for so long that I felt odd about coming back. Which is daft. I have missed chatting to you. And fear not, am not about to give you precis of last however many months. Only to say that we now have DC3 - Martha born 17.12.11 She is blissful - and just started to cry so will feed her and be back later (not as in later in the year - hopefully later today). Happy New Year to you all

Hi Urbane and many congratulations! Lovely name too.

Martha is a beautiful name.

Beans I often look at mine and wonder how on earth I managed to produce such beautiful offspring.

My big boy is 5 today! 5!!!!!!!!!

ZJ running is free. I used to love swimming and swam all the time before ds was born. In fact the pool reopened after the Christmas break just before he was born. Tuesday I did 50 lengths. Wednesday I went to aquanatal. About midnight Wed night I went into labour . Where we live now though the logistics and cost of going regularly just make it impossible. Even the local yoga class is too expensive.

Getting stuff ready for the baby? Er...we're supposed to do that? Really? Hmmm well I know I have baby stuff somewhere.

I can't remember if I gave ds a gift from dd. I will probably do it this time with them being older. Don't know what though. Stickers are NOT the thing in this house. They adore them but end up crying and fighting as they get stuck int he wrong places, ripped as they are trying to take them off the backing, thrust at me every 5 seconds to peel another one off when they decide they can't manage it.....I might take them to choose a new film together or something.

Just dashing on to welcome back Urbane and say a big congratulations on baby Martha. I am so glad you have returned. We were wondering about you just before christmas but we could not think of a way to contact you. I cannot wait to hear all about Martha's arrival etc. What is it like being a mother of three? That is the billion dollar question in our household (I doubt we will ever find out but DH has re-registered his interest).

Oh, and thank you all for asking after my ear, Indith was right in that they did syringe it and it was MIRACULOUS. I can hear better than I have been able to hear for years. I have actually realised the world is quite a noisy place. I may get addicted to ear syringing!

Congrats on the likely girl Kayz. Exciting news.

Hi Urbane, many congratulations on the arrival of Martha, I hope you're enjoying the first few weeks getting to know each other?

Beans I sometimes do a double take and marvel at my beautiful girl and wonder where she came from, it's such a lovely thing to be able to sit back and enjoy watching them. Good luck tonight! I've got a few sticker and activity books stashed away, so will keep them for the appropriate moments. DD already has a couple of dolls, only one of which gets any attention (the tesco value one, of course, not the expensive baby annabel!), but I was wondering about getting some little dresses etc, so she can play 'mother ' along with me. I think that might be the thing

Since I finished work I've had MIL asking when she can still have DD (used to have her one day a week) to let me rest and DD asking when she can see Grandma, so I've sent her off this afternoon and have a cuppa and 20 minutes of a peaceful house, 'tis lovely

Love and congrats to Urbane and a big hello to Martha...

Kayz, when is your new scan?

Rubes, I haven't seen any of CBB even though I usually enjoy it. Too annoyingly busy!

I am glad you are having a nice rest, ZJ....

It's not me Beans, sorry

And sorry for crapola and incomplete catch up. Oslo on Friday but effectively it's tomorrow as I have to go to London in the evening for a party and it's not worth coming back. Am back next Weds....love to all. And one day I will get back to being able to come on here properly instead of running around like the proverbial headless chicken.

Urbane Congratulations on the arrival of Martha!

LadyT The new scan is tomorrow afternoon. I am hoping for a bit bigger percentage on the gender than 80%, I want to look at baby clothes!! Hope you have a lovely time in Oslo. It sounds lovely.

Sorry for poor catch up, the boys are driving me insane. DS1 still has his impetigo and now DS2 has a chest infection. So we have a fridge full of anti-biotics. Despite their infections they are both full of energy and you wouldn't know DS2 was ill except for an annoying cough.

I might wrap them up tomorrow and go to the park.

Hope you're all well!

Just quickly...

Congrats urbane! Beautiful name.

ZJ You'll find that your DD is excited by the little nappies and will be constantly stealing them for her 'baby'. Maybe a little kit for her baby doll with a muslin, a few nappies, wipes, spoon and bowl for feeding, might be fun. Don't forget to have an emergency DVD on hand for the day that the baby won't stop feeding! I got DD1 a little paint palate (that looks spelt wrong but you get the idea!)thing from Wilkinsons which keeps her occupied for almost an hour at a time. It was 29p!

Arti I chuckled that your DH has "reregistered his interest". Sounds like code .

Urbane congrats, great name.

Congrats Urbane!