Sept 2008 - no witty title as we're too busy dealing with stroppy 3 yr olds.

[MrsArchchancellorRidcully]

Hello all. Couldn't see a new thread so thought I'd do the honours. Sorry for rubbish title, I'm no good at witty! :)

bookmarking.

I'm so fed up with this weather, the kids are cooped up inside and when they do go out and play all the cold, damp air ends up in the house as the back door keeps being opened.

This weather sucks meglet

DS1 back to pre-school tomorrow for the last half of the last term . Can't believe how quickly this year has gone. Haven't heard from his primary school yet about what we need to do for September. Hope they send something soon, am itching to get organised for it.

Any ideas about what I can do with a boisterous 3 year old boy over summer? We've got a week in Devon, but other than that I don't really know how I'm going to keep him occupied/entertained other than the usual merry go round of parks and playgrounds (and iPhone apps). Would quite like to do some day-trips that are easy with F in tow. London zoo and aquarium are too bloody expensive. But I suppose once over the summer wouldn't break the bank.

Elder kids back at school so some relative calm in the house for once.
Had to put up the stair gate as Lucy is so inquisitive and sneaks up there all the time now. Robyn isn't best pleased but she will have to get used to it, hopefully it won't be long.
I've finally started the decorating, glossed several doors over the weekend so it stinks. We will have one smelly house for a while as I have several more to do and they all need 2nd coats. Then when we move we will have the joy of doing it again.

Bugger and shit. My roof is leaking . Have now got a housefull of clutter from the loft and am on the verge of renting a storage space.

Bum, bum and bum again.

And the kids are stuck in the living room for a while as all the boxes are upstairs. They keep trying to kill each other as I'm upstairs all the time. I think I need to get a DVD out and hope for the best.

digi can you do all the touristy things? The DC's will tolerate a quick wander through the national gallery, the skaters on the southbank kept them transfxed for ages and they enjoy horseguards parade. What else is free in London?.... must be loads of things . Your library might have some posters for with free / dirt cheap activities.

Have to finish this mug of tea and get back to the loft .

Oh no meglet :(

digi we just do a tour of the parks in summer, and find deals in the local paper for entrance to things, or if there's any council run stuff in any of the parks. There are free museums, and if in London then taking a picnic to southbank near the Eye will provide a whole lot of people-watching entertainment. Lots of playdates, and hope for a summer spent out in the garden! Also things like coke/dr pepper often have 2-for-1 deals for places like Legoland. I gather groupon have some great deals too.

I can't believe some of the babies in this group are starting school....! My older DD is still only in a reception and a 'new starter' to me!

She hasn't. I've done a bit of stalking .

I am happy as it hasn't rained today so the loft should dry out and I can put the tubs back down on dry spots for any new rain.

carrie I know, DD is only 16 months away from school. I'll be applying for her place come November! We know a few other reception 2013 children , lots of detemined, younger sibling girls . Heaven help the school.

Well done on the stalking Meglet

Can't believe ds will be going to school in Sept Digi, how do you feel about it? I know M wouldn't be ready, but then again I don't think that I will be ready next year!

How is the roof looking Meglet? Is a quick patch up job needed, or a whole new roof!

I suppose I really should start planning activities for the summer hols.....

We are off to Cyprus at the weekend, I can't wait. We all need a break and some sun.

It's not a whole new roof, as far as I can see it's just one corner with a few leaks and tatty membranes (I hope). A roofing company is coming round on saturday. Apparently insurance will cover it if the wind was over a certain amount of mph in the week before, but I don't yet know what the precise speed was. A loss adjuster is coming round next week to take a look, but I might be able to do it without having to use insurance, I shall see what the roofer thinks.

Have a lovely holiday ITLMIMI.

Starting school sounds very scary, thank god we have another year of nursery. Have everything crossed that we are moved before the school year so Robyn can have some time at the school nursery to make friends.

I have managed to get on the college course I want in September, I just have to do my maths and English GCSE again as 20 years is too long for Uni's to accept. At least I don't have to pay the £1,500 course fees which is a huge relief and means I can now look forward to September.

Great news debs, well done you!

Thanks for the stalking on our behalf meglet
Sounds like sort of good news about the roof...? Hope it doesn't cost lots of ££

Just made another massive batch of food for DS2, I think this may be the last as his finger feeding is starting to outstrip his intake from a spoon. Still shovelling it in on a spoon as best we can though just to fill the child up.

Can't remember if I said but I got him weighed the day he turned 9m, and he weighed what DS1 did when he turned 2 .

Well done Debs! What course is it? You will need a new pencil case .

carrie. He's a little chubstix ! It will all burn off when he's on his feet though. DS was always a big baby and pudgy toddler but as soon as he hit 4yo he turned into a baby giraffe and has stayed that way.

I bet he doesn't weigh as much as my new nephew who weighs 20lb at 12 weeks! very almost 1lb a week he's put on. He's enormous!
This weekend was the first time I met him so I was a bit sad that I didn't get to see him in the first week when he was 'tiny'.

We heard from the school today. DS1 starts 10th September!
Half day for a week, then stay for lunch for a week, then full time by the third week. He's very excited by it, but I do worry about how young he is to be spending over 6 hours a day there not having barely any one to one attention. He really needs it sometimes. Desperately craves it at home - his happiest moments are when F is asleep and it's just me and him playing together.

Am currently reading 'Raising Boys' for some tips. Apparently they get a testosterone surge around 4 and behave quite boisterously till it drops down at 5. Brilliant, a whole school year of him not being able to concentrate on anything.

Hope the roof isnt too bad meglet

Thanks for summer day trip tips too. Think I'll aim for one non-park related day trip a week. There's only 6 or 7 weeks of the holidays right?

Can I ask all of you with DC's who have SN, did you think you were being a crap parent all the time (for what of a better phrase) until it became clear your DC needed more support than you could give them? I do sometimes despair over DS and DD and can't decide if it's just high-spirits, me being crap and a tired LP or they do have additional needs that I need to establish. DS has been hard work from about 3 months old (I've seen HV's and nursery said he was just quite bright) and I can't seem to 'win'.

digi the school will be used to settling in children of different ages. All DS's class seemed to do for the first term was playing, loads of free play inside and out. Only now, in the last weeks of reception year are they gradually getting the children used to doing little bits of set work at tables as preparation for year 1. DS has spent a lot of the year building things outside with his little friends, it's pretty relaxed IME. I wouldn't have thought they would expected any reception children to be that great at concentrating when they first start, DS's class didn't even go to assemblies until after October half-term, they weren't thrown in at the deep end.

I'm doing the access to higher learning course. I'm hoping to do midwifery after it, if I get in 1st time then I should be qualified by time I turn 40.

meglet I remember despairing for months over ds, he was so different to dd1. Nothing got through to him and it was a relief when we realised he had autism, the relief didn't last long though. We had a very difficult few years to get through.

meg I knew ds1 had sn/sen quite early on but he was a very poorly baby/had a bad start and had lots of problems from that time...if you are really worred wrt your ds then I would recommend going to your GP and asking for a referral to a child developement paed/community paed.

HVs and GPs are - IME - pretty useless wrt sn/sen and more often than not will just say things like (in my case)
"Ds1 not sleeping means he is clever" - GP
"Ds1 will catch up - he is a summer baby! - Senco
etc

Go with your gut intinct...I wish I had sooner The referral will either;
Put your mind at rest OR get the process started to assess your ds if needed.

Ds1 was 9 on weds!!! He is happy at school, doing well and is now -ta da!! - reading at the appropriate (age related) level!!!! 2 terms ago he was 2.5 years behind!! I v v proud of him

Star has had the baby! Born yesterday, nearly 9 pounds!

Just been for a run so must shower, but will be back later

That's good news - congrats star!

Also congrats on your college course Debs.

Have a good holiday ILTMIMI. we went to holland and Belgium last week, and although the weather was totally rubbish, we had a lovely time.

Erin's pre-school place has been confirmed for September at our first choice so hopefully that will bode well for next years admissions.

Not much else to report here but hope you all have a lovely weekend .

Badvoc that's amazing progress, I do think kids do it in their own time. DD1 certainly did.

Debs well done on the course, can't see why you have to take the GCSE's again though.

Digi and Kagey school quite a few of Maebh's friends are going this summer and she's be fine, but she's still my baby (thank goodness)

I've finally got round to putting picture etc into her baby record book. I might have to trawl through mn for landmark dates as I don't have them recorded elsewhere!

digi I think there are/will be quite a few threads on here about how to amuse the kids in the summer. Libraries are a good idea, paddling pools, cheap craft, as many play dates as possible (for your sanity as well) - it'll fly by

thanks badvoc and debs. My gut instinct has always been that there's something not quite right but I can't put my finger on it. But he's very social and chatty which crosses a lot of things off the list. Mum has said she will probably pay to get him assessed to see if it sheds any light on why he's such hard work.

ninja LOL at you scouring MN for your DD's milestone dates . I think I've neglected the DC's baby books for a couple of years too. I still weigh and measure them every other month as I like watching them creep up the lines in their little red books.

I saw that Star had her baby too. From the sound of it it was a fairly uneventful birth. Boring is good .

I was just trying to start my end of module OU essay. I have to write 1000 words and have managed to bash out 300 just about ok but still need improvement words. Have month until the end of the couse but this essay needs to be in by the end of the month. I find it so hard as I swear my brain has long since leaked out of my ears. The crap weather doesn't help, I blitzed quite a lot of in during the warm weather in May. Sitting here tonight on a grey, chilly, blustery evening doesn't help the old grey matter to get going.

My loft clear continues. The DC's have some of my old books and toys. We played magnetic fishing earlier. And DD is now the proud owner of my 30 year old vintage Muppet t-shirt .

Since DS2 has got me up at ridiculous o'clock I thought I'd be the first to wish ninja the happiest of happy birthdays!

ninja the uni I will hopefully go to won't accept gcse results more than 3 years old unless you have been in full time education since you took them.
I did the assessment and came out at a. B,C grade so should do ok.

Glad star has had her baby, I hope it wasn't too traumatic

Huge congrats to star x

Happy birthday to ninja x

I am very about doing more OU courses...I would LOVE to but would need a student loan for each one which would mean £7500 for each "year" of study and a degree is 3 years. sigh. I know you dont have to pay it back til you earn over £21k (at the moment anyway) but its such a lot of money and, at the end of the day, a debt. sigh.

Off to church today...I am starting my sunday school teacher role next week Hope I dont produce a generation of atheists!!! Also going on a day long course on families on 25th which I am looking forward to...

Dh in China til weds He left on ds1's b day and is missing fathers day I forgot to put his f day cards in his bag!

Hope the weather improves.....

Where is your DH going in China badvoc? LOL at 'generation of atheists'!

The dc's are building a shack of bamboo canes and twigs in the garden, it's all tied together with skipping ropes. I'm still looking at the contents of my loft which has taken over my living room . I have found some things to e-bay though, tour programmes, stamps and the old knackered scalextric.