Feb 2010 - turning two and turning heads

[BigBadBear]

PA great news on your DD. I hope Nigel gets better soon too.

IC boo, take care and try to rest.

I went out last night with some work colleagues for a few drinks and a meal. DH was babysitting. I had a lovely night but I threw up 4 times during the night. DH reckons it was too much alcohol but I don't think so as I didn't drink to the extreme. I'm finally starting to feel better but I'm looking forward to an early night as I'm shattered.

DS has been very kind with me today pottering around. I took him out on our private road with his scuttle bug and he had a great time. Gorgeous weather over here today.

It's now dd2's turn with the viral infection and she's been up most of the evening (still is) after spending most of the day cross with the world and refusing most of her food. Here's hoping for a restful night once she settles ...

Ah, sorry to hear about more poorlyness - how are you today, SB? And your DD2 BG?

I'm feeling much brighter this morning, maybe because I haven't eaten any solid food for more than 24 hours (currently existing on fruit smoothie and coke). I noticed that DD went sharply downhill every time she ate anything reasonably substantial, so I'm going to try and starve this one out.
I'm getting a bit obsessed about food, though....

DH has taken DD to the PILs for the day, so at least I get to recuperate in peace.
Bliss!

Glad you are getting some rest IC

DD had a early nap today, have to remind myself that her being better doesn't mean she is fully recovered. She did make us laugh yesterday, she woke up a bit distressed. Said she wanted her sandwich, picked it up, decided she didn't and mushed it all up. Then cried because that bit was broken.

quickly to SB, BG how are your respective households today

Yes, PA, although DD was essentially better, it did take a couple more days before she fully got her energy back and she definitely needed more sleep too.

How's your DS today?

I'm much better today, I definately needed a good night sleep (slept from 8pm to 7am), bliss.

DS is a the moment napping in the car, so I can enjoy so relaxing time.

IC glad to hear that you're feeling a bit better.

DH is worknig this afternoon because of the France-England rugby match... Just one more weekend of the 6 Nations... Can't wait

I typed two posts on my phone and neither got here . dd2 was up every hour last night and difficult to resettle. Found out this morning why when I took her temperature and one ear was normal and the other close to 40. Poor little thing has an ear infection . I do wonder if it may have anything to do with her experimentally sticking a small pencil in that ear a few days ago or whether she put the pencil in because her ear already felt odd and achy.

I am feeling much better thanks to spending most of two days in bed but feel a bit tired after last night. dd1 is at a birthday party, dd2 was grateful to go to bed for a nap and I had hoped to have a lunchtime nap myself. Then our opposite neighbour had a lot of wood delivered and started plenty of hammering and sawing right on the street to get the things into his house; neighbour on one side hoovered his whole house (thought about inviting him to do ours, too) and neighbour on the other side likes to drag her furniture around a bit every so often (at least that is what it sounds like). So I got up and fumed and went to find biscuits and . But I guess I am most cross because I expected dh to drop dd1 at the party and come back home for a bit before picking her up again at 4...

BG poor you, I hope you managed to rest despites your DH not been home.

As England won the rugby it means that dH is not going to be home anytime soon and therefore I'll have to expalin to DS that he'll be able to see him tomorrow as he'll be home after his bedtime. This is now part of the bedtime routine to reassure DS that both maman and daddy are here at night to take care of him and that daddy will be back home when he leaves before DS is in bed for work. FX it seems to work

dd2 slept for nearly 3 hours this afternoon and seems a little calmer (but just turned her dinner down, so not feeling good either).

dh didn't get back because the journey to the party took nearly an hour (normally less than 10 minutes) and then he couldn't park. He actually turned back at one point but that had dd1 in tears (the birthday girl is her best friend), so he tried again. By the time he got to the venue there was no point in coming home and then go back to fetch her. I have no idea what was going on today for there to be so much traffic!

Hope everyone has had a good day. Beautiful sunshine here today . Just wish we'd been able to enjoy it a bit more...

Maybe you'll get some rest tomorrow once DH and DD1 are out.

DS isn't too bad but you know how it with babies. A little bit of congestion and feeds and sleep are then all out of kilter. He's been waking up but not wanting food and being able to be put down for half for the night.

Went to the park which was heaving. I think it did good for DD to be in a situation like that as the park is normally really quiet when we go. Since I had two hands she learnt how to scale the cargo net today.

I've transformed the double to two sit up positions which means I can put DS in without him screaming. I don't mind the sling but it nice to have a choice, even if I do lose all my storage space

No IL visit until end of April. Not only have we managed to delay the visit, it has turned into a one day visit and we managed to direct the conversation so that they chose that weekend

Although this will sound petty. Today DD was in her santa outfit (took me a while to realise why people were giving me more smiles than normal when we were out). On the skype call (baring in mind they brought this overpriced outfit) were the 'Oh no, why are you wearing that, did you run out of clothes' comments. Found myself a little sad but probably because I could see DH's sad face, they are normally so open in criticism (it's normally thinly veiled as concern) but as it was a small matter guess they felt more free reign.

PA [champagne] such a great news for you. Cheers!

Great news on keeping the ILs at bay for a bit longer, PA!
I think it was unnecessary of them to make out that wearing a Santa outfit unseasonally is a big deal, when of course it certainly isn't. Silly people. Not surprised you were narked.

BG sorry to hear your longed-for siesta got torpedoed by your noisy neighbours - it used to drive me mad when I was on shifts and needed to sleep in the afternoons! Eventually I just wore earplugs....
...and speaking of ears, sorry to hear your DD2 is under the weather again. It might be related to the pencil incident, especially if a little bit of the pencil ended up in there.

SB I hope your DS settled okay.

DH was frazzled by suppertime tonight. Although DD had spent much of her time at her GPs playing with them so he could get on with some work, she still gives him a hard time - harder than she does for me, for some reason. It takes the form of repeating a demand ad infinitum, rising in intensity to wailing if she doesn't think she's going to get whatever it is. I could hear her doing it loads while I was in bed yesterday.
DH suspects it's because he gives in more to her than I do (!) I don't know if that's necessarily the case, but I certainly employ "The Pause" much more than he does.

Anyway, I'd gone outside to get the washing in and DD was making a fuss about her supper and DH called me inside, through gritted teeth then stomped out. DD was meanwhile throwing a mini-tantrum (she wanted more of one of the things on her plate, but had loads of other stuff to eat meanwhile). I removed her plate altogether, got her out of her chair and told her unless she was quiet, the meal was over. After repeating this a couple of times "DD quiet, Mummy get plate..." she got the message and shut up and calm was restored, thankfully. I'm not surprised DH's nerves were so jangled.

Mind you, she had a total scoff-fest - ate everything she was given plus two carrot and courgette muffins and some of my yoghurt (the only thing I've dared eat today!) - making up for those lost calories during her gastro, I think!

not so open

IC I think with us being the SAHP's we are the ones who choose the strategy and therefore we have the conviction. DH struggles with the two of them in the mornings but has the advantage that he thinks if I struggle with this small amount of time how does she cope with 9 hours. In reality I find most of the time far easier than what he has but then I have to find ways to deal with it.

Yep, you've definitely got a point there, PA

Sigh, why does dd2's worst ear ache to date (it's now oozing) have to coincide with her total refusal to take any kind of medication? She woke up screaming just now and the meds I offered her mainly ended on her neck, face, in her eyes and on her pillow... I may take her to the GP tomorrow just for reassurance because of the pencil incident.

PA Good on you to tame the ILs. Must say your over friendly neighbour freaks me out more though.

IC My two also seem to be more nagging with dh, partly because he has a severe case of selective hearing and is very good at filtering their whining out, until it gets too much for him and he gets angry... [not helpful emoticon]. Whereas I tend to respond, as least verbally, straight away, am possibly much stricter overall, but fair, and things tend to not escalate quite as much.

Get well wishes to everyone who's poorly.

Ah, your poor old DD2 BG
Yes, your approach sounds very similar to mine to the whining.
I think part of DH's problem is that his personality type is far more inclined to take action NOW when he thinks something needs to be done. Of course, toddlers just don't work that way. So DH gets impatient with DD, or feels she's slowing him down with the whingeing if he's trying to do something for her, like make her food.

I totally sympathise with that as when DD and I are on a deadline, I'm a lot less tolerant if she's faffing or whining. (Slightly dreading having to do the school thing in the mornings because of this..!!) Mostly, I have the luxury of time with DD (and no internal deadlines, like DH) so I can mostly be more relaxed about things. Also, of course, children are expert at picking up and reacting to vibes, so if I'm feeling slightly stressed because I know we've got to be at the doctor's or whatever, DD will inevitably play up more.....

Ah, the selective hearing of men . That is definitely the cause of my DDs whining more for their father than for me. But he can be so inconsistent with them, and it drives me mad. For example, he'll let them watch TV in the morning (which I never do, and they never ask me!) but when I point out that it's been an hour, he'll just demand it goes off with no warning for them. So they cry

How is all the poorliness this morning? Good work on putting off the ILs PA.

SB I often have to do bedtimes on my own. To be honest, most of the time I find it easier (and the DDs behave better) if it's just me, probably because they know the routine. They both accept that they will see Daddy in the morning, and were even fine when he was away for a week.

We had a lovely day yesterday in Brighton. We didn't do much, but just wandered around eating a lot of junk and DD2, in particular, just loved it (though she was a little freaked out when she realised that she could see the sea between the planks of wood on the pier :o

I've noticed in the last few weeks that dd2 is getting much fussier about her food and will now turn down (at least at first) her previous favourites eg gnocchi. Luckily she looks up to her older sister so much that when dd1 says to her not to be silly, the food is really nice, she will usually get on with eating it. Which leaves lunchtimes with me...

BG at least she can be persuaded by someone. When my DD2 decides that she doesn't want to eat something, there is literally nothing you can do to change her mind. But she's much better at lunchtime than dinner time, so I don't feel it too much on my days with just her. Oh, and (much like Joey from Friends) she's appalling at sharing food, which can leave me a little hungry when I forget...

Very quiet out there. Everyone OK?

thanks BBB
Hope that all the sickly are OK

I didn't take dd2 to the GP yesterday because she seemed a little better in the morning. Now wish I had! We had another broken night and she was terribly poorly this morning. Took her to be checked over and it turns out she's got the lot: ear, throat AND chest infection . No wonder she didn't sleep last night. Giving her antibiotics was fun... She has suddenly decided she will not take medication, ever, so I had to be a little determined to get it down her. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind I think. dh was quite last night when I grabbed her and made her have nurofen from a syringe. He'd tried to reason with her for half an hour, telling her how much better it would make her feel... Well, she is normally quite rational but she's also 2 years old and was screaming in pain. And it was 2 am and I thought it was about time all of us got some sleep. She looked a little shell shocked but was snoring shortly after until just after 6 this morning.