December 2009 - We'll be having Terrific Twos, thank you very much!

[LifeOfKate]

New year, new thread :o

Welcome all :)

[BlatherskitedaboutChristmas]

Oops, wrong thread. Happy New Year to you all too. 2013 with 3 year olds!!!

[BlatherskitedaboutChristmas]

Happy New Year party people. Here's to some fab parties in 2013

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Glad you are OK at moment blathers. Hope everyone has a nice NYE.

[BlatherskitedaboutChristmas]

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday everyone. Hope everyone is well.

I'm OK at the moment. Have an appointment with a Haematologist in January but haven't had a Neutropenia reoccurance so I have a feeling I'm just going to be immediately discharged

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Sounds like a brilliant idea Lee! Tbh, had Immy not been invited to so many parties is year I reckon I'd have not done anything much, but I have too many friends with slightly older children!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Hello! Found you all again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all the 3 year olds and soon to be three year olds - especially Noah as I know he is today.

Immy was three yesterday, we had a party (our first on) at the hall just 2 minutes walk away. It was a jungle/animal theme (her request) and we had a bouncy castle, I printed out blank elmers and cut up lots of coloured tissue paper and they all got to stick together an elmer. There was colouring too, but they didn't end up doing that much, the adults did though . We did pass the parcel - three parcels at once so it didn't go on too long and a sort of musical statues game where they all had a card with an animal printed on it and we played music when the music stopped they all froze and held up their card and the one I picked out got a chocolate coin (and repeat until all have won) so no-one went 'out'. We also had a face painter and they ran in circles and danced to some music. Food was just pizzas, carrot batons, cucumber batons and peppers and humous and pringles and I made a Peppa Pig cake. I am exhausted but proud it all went well, I've only been to a few parties and all at organised places so didn't know if I could do it myself! A few glasses of champagned helped me along though.

HURRAH! To Ethelred - I know I have said it on fb, but I am very excited for you, especially after everything.

We ended up putting up the tree and decorations on Friday because Immy wanted to do it, she is so excited and we have a ridiculously sized tree for our front room! She also has a little fake individual one from paperchase that she chose in purple that she is allowed to play with the decorations on rather than ours!!!

No joy here yet on the baby front, I am resigned to having an only I think, but we shall see, never say never and all that.

Hope you are all well, I am glad I remembered to check back and catch up. These threads provided me with so, so much support with Imogen and being her birthday has made me think back to how much I had no idea wtf I was doing and who on earth let me take her home!!!!

[Blatherskite]

This year I've hired a hall and a couple of bouncy castles as that's what the birthday girl has asked for :)

I'm not doing much in the way of games as ime, they'll just want to bounce for two hours straight. I'll print out some colouring sheets and lay out some crayons and I've got some make-your-own crown bits so they can make a party hat each. The party is 2-4 so I'm not planning on feeding people really but will get some big costco pizzas and nibbles and a load of fruit and then of course there'll be cake too. Party bags are a few sweeties and a couple of fun toys and I've got some bunting and balloons to decorate the hall with. It should be fun

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Haha, just scrolled down and read about the teddy bears picnic! I thought that my memory couldn't possibly be good enough to remember from last year

[WhispersOfWickedness]

I am putting my head in the sand a bit about it! The trouble is, he knows this year Two of his friends have had their third birthdays in the last couple of weeks and had parties, so I really think that when he knows it's his birthday, he will ask where his party is I would feel terrible telling him that he wasn't having one!

Do I have vague memories of you having a teddy bears tea party last year, blathers or am I making that up? If I have remembered right, what activities did you do?

Have you got party plans for this year?

[Blatherskite]

Hows the party planning going?

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Aww, that's a good idea

Still don't know what to do about a party this year, we went to one of his friend's on Sunday and that exhausted me just watching We do have the option of just having a bit of food and a cake at a parent run session at the local children's centre, so might do that.

[Blatherskite]

I probably wouldn't have minded so much except I'd booked a hall and gone all out with a theme to make it non-christmas-sy. We had a teddy bears picnic!

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Haha, no, I don't remember that rant! I am a bit the other way, I dress Noah in his Christmas outfit for his birthday I can imagine feeling annoyed on his behalf if anyone tries the joint birthday/Christmas present thing though!

[Blatherskite]

We wait until after C's birthday too. I always used to put them up on the weekend after the 1st but now we wait until the 18th. Dh loves it as he hates all the fuss of christmas so an extra fortnight without the decorations up is fine by him.

My BIL's birthday is 3 days before C's and he makes my Sister wait to put the decorations up too.

If when she's older, she wants the tree up earlier we'll do that but I try to keep the two things separate for now. Does anyone remember my rant when someone suggested they were going to bring their children to her birthday party dressed as Santa and a Snowman last year?

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Your new Christmases sound lovely When do you all put up your decorations? I used to do mine on the 1st December, but I made an agreement before Noah was born with DH that we would put them up the weekend after Noah's birthday so that he could have his birthday seperately. I didn't anticipate him being 14 days late though (was due on 25th Nov) so now I have to wait

[Blatherskite]

When I was small, the only real Christmas tradition would be that both sets of my Grandparents would come over and we'd all be together on the day. Once we got older, the stopped doing that and my father had no need to act nice any more so it just got more and more miserable so I spent most of the day alone in my room until I stopped going back.

So I've pinched some nicer traditions from here

We now have a Christmas eve present that contains New PJs and a Christmassy book to cuddle up with at bedtime on Christmas eve. Last year I added a new Christmassy DVD and we had a carpet picnic for Christmas eve dinner time while we watched the movie. I made pizza last year but have been asked if we can order in pizza this year which I think we'll do. I'm also going to add some slipper socks this year as for the first time ever we're staying home on the day and will be able to spend some time in out PJs while the kids play. I might pop in a bath bomb too to make Christmas eve bathtime a little more special. Pain au chocolat and orange juice have also been asked for for breakfast again.

Between that lot and the present from Santa, christmasses are a lot more fun these days.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Ah, yeah, that's tricky, we do just stockings from Father Christmas, that's the way my family does it, DH has no interest in Christmas so it's all my traditions!

[Blatherskite]

I'm OK. The Iron was helping but I seem to have relapsed. I had another blood test today so will have to see what they say. Have been referred to the hospital to see a Haematologist now too.

I think things are so hard because we're buying for child #2 too. We've got all the obvious 3 year old stuff already and she is so much like her big brother, it's hard to chose anything new! I think I'm going to go for making a Dragon toy for her and buying some new Dragon books for her birthday (she loves Dragons!) and getting her a Xylophone for Christmas (we have a bath one which she adores) Just need a present from Santa now! When I was little, you got one present from Mum and Dad but DH's family do another present - the biggest, most exciting one - from Santa. He doesn't really ever bother with traditions but he likes that one so it's stuck

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Sorry, that wasn't very helpful for you!
Ok, we are getting Noah a trunkii for his birthday, a little table and chairs and a Duplo numbers set for Christmas. On his wish list is various number related puzzles/stamp sets (he loves numbers and letters atm), balancing scales, hairy maclary books/DVD/CDs, tap tap art, various craft stuff, threading puzzles/beads, other various books.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

How is the iron working, Blathers?

I have got so much on the list for Noah, it's really hard not to buy him everything It's Rosa I'm having trouble with as she already has everything from Noah and hasn't really developed her own likes and dislikes yet! She normally just wants to play with what he is playing with

[Blatherskite]

I am totally, totally stuck! What on earth are you lot getting your about-to-be-3-year-old for birthdays/christmas this year??

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

They don't know why. I'm on iron tablets to try and help. I've been feeling a bit better this weekend so hopefully they're working.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Goodness, blathers, that sounds a bit worrying, do they know why? Is there anything they can do to resolve it?

[BlatherskiteOfTheLivingDead]

Found you again. I noticed on FB that you were pregnant again Ethel, congratulations!

You're going to have a March and a December baby just like me :)

I'm poorly at the moment. I went to the doctor because I was feeling constantly tired and a blood test showed that I have very low White Blood Cell levels and therefore not a lot of immunity. Explains why I've been feeling awful but is a bit worrying. Hopefully I'll be better soon