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! :)

nc well done on the self-diagnosis and inch-loss! Hope things continue to improve for you.

I'm still in maternity clothes. Getting a bit depressed by it but I refuse to buy jeans that fit the size I currently am. So it's leggings and loose tunic tops that will eventually go with my pre-pregnancy jeans.

DS pre-school report was really good. Nursery head thinks he's more than ready for reception which is very reassuring. So strange to hear how well behaved he is for them when he rarely listens to us at home.

digi I bought 1 pair jeans and 1 pair trousers to fit, on the grounds that I'd feel better in decent clothes. But actually I'd put on lots of weight pre-preg and only a stone or so during thanks to all the throwing up, so its more just my shape not size that's changed.

Had A's parents eve yesterday, which was lovely - his old toddler worker is currently covering preschool and often sounds a bit grouchy so was nice to see her not in the midst of herding children, smiling, and opening with A, aw, he's great, isnt he?

We were both glad he's got another year before school though, to master those vital dressing and bottom-wiping skills...

Glad to hear things are going well for most. I've been awol for ages , went to France for 2 weeks (tent, baby, almost 4 yr old, 2 or 3 days of rain........ but heck, was good). DD's behaviour went rapidly downhill as she stayed up later and then wouldn't nap in the daytime, so got very grouchy and really missed her routine in nursery.

We also have the 'why' here all the time and she's started to answer back. But hey, I'm cool with alllll of that! I've got my relationship with her worked out (for now!!) - dropped her days at nursery to just 2 until I go back to work (2nd Oct arrgghhh) and we are having lots of fun. DP still can't sort his relationship out with her - he just doesn't get little kids. He sees how she behaves and thinks she is also mentally much older. I say, she can recognise the letter 'a' but can't read. She understands she's being naughty but can't control herself yet.
Ah well, it's all getting better though - I'm trying my version of the Montessori approach and letting DD lead me. We've done jigsaws, perfected her name writing and now she's obsessed with pairing/matching games.

Like NC, I'm glad she won't be going to reception until 2013. She is probably just about ready (has recently mastered turning clothes inside out and wiping her bum) but I'd rather have another yr of one drop off and being able to go on holiday whenever we want.

DS is now 7.5 months and amazing He has the most beautiful eyes and smile - everyone comments. Hell, I can't birth or feed em but I grow gorgeous children! His tongue tie is very obvious now but seems to be doing OK with it.

(TMI question - should I get it snipped? It doesn't affect his eating but will it affect his..ahem..sex life when he's an adult? If you know what i mean....that sort of thing is something DP and I quite like )

On holiday he finally got eating and now is learning to chomp on most stuff. After 6 weeks, just in the last few days he will take porridge and yoghurt from a spoon. Until then, I've been baking porridge with figs and butter in the oven so he can eat breakfast!

DD and DS are now sharing a room as she likes the company and he's back to sleeping 7-6.30.

Still can't get stoopid work to agree to me working 4 days a week. Am complaining to head of HR as it is ridiculous that I don't know what days I'm doing having requested it back in March.

bookmarking...

mrsa I think TT can affect speech if it's quite obvious. So might be worth getting it snipped to rule that out. Am sure he'll be fine in other respects, he will be a teenage boy at some point after all!
Glad you had a great holiday.

DS1 being particularly challenging this weekend, to make up for my smugness over his report. Attempted lunch out on my own with the two while DH had a meeting. Total disaster. Took all my willpower not to text dh to cut his meeting short.

Ds1 just doesn't seem to run out of energy at the moment. He's been swimming, cycled round the woods, and had over an hour running round the playground on very little food. We've finally put our foot down on feeding him - up till last week we would spoon feed him his meals in order to keep the peace (I know, I know - this is my blw pfb remember?). He would eat anything as long as we physically fed him. He knows how to feed himself and would do so when very hungry or whenever dh and I not around. He regresses when we are though and has been especially bad since his little brother came along. So now he hardly eats anything. Oh well, sure that will change too.

DG we've had the regressing with eating and wanting to be fed thing. We just drew a line under it, told him (not at a meal time) that he needed to feed himself, and if he doesn't then he'll go hungry. If he's struggling to get stuff on the spoon/fork then we help with that, but he has to put the food into his mouth. Sometimes he goes to bed on an empty stomach, but he makes up for it at breakfast!
MrsA sounds like your holiday was fab! We had DS2's tounge tie snipped at a week old so I'm not sure what they'll be like with an older baby if its not affecting his eating. Only time will tell if it'll affect his speech. I guess talk to GP/HV, if you get a sympathetic one, they'll refer you, if not, they won't. There's little evidence out there as far as I can tell about whether or not having it snipped has any benefit, but its certainly a much simpler procedure the smaller they are.

DS1 is currently lying on his bedroom floor sucking his thumb maintaining "I'm not tired I'm not!" having just weed in his pants for the third time in two days. He's not allowed down til he's got himself dressed, I suspect I'll have to go and wake him in an hour for school...both my boys are barely eating but sleeping lots this week, and boy are they grumpy when tired. Fortunately we have lots of cake in the house for me

carrie What did your DS do in the end, did he fall asleep? I find it so hard to keep a straight face to "I'm not TIRED" tantrums .

nc you've inspired me to get a new Yoga DVD for home . Sometimes I can get to Pilates at the gym but I don't go nearly enough. So I've now got a DVD of 20min yoga routines to work on inbetween gym visits and Shred days. I'm trying to build my figure back up as I've lost a lot of muscle over the last 2 years. I really want to get back to Body Pump and lose my matchstick arms!

Mum has been helping out with bedtimes for a couple of weeks (on working days) and the change in the DC's behaviour has been wonderful! Far less shouting and smacks are now few and far between. Mum has only really had to crack down on DD as DS behaves when DD isn't raising hell. I've got a couple of weeks off in August so I can continue the crackdown.

How is everyones' DC's with this gloomy weather? It's so grey and humid . The dc's look pasty and have lost all interest in playing outside. I've been making sure they get their vits as they'll get ricketts at this rate (they get it in Scotland don't they?).

We so need a stonking heatwave and some decent sunshine. .

meglet ds1 is being a major pita when it's raining. He had his pre-school trip yesterday and had hours playing out in the not quite sunshine but it made a huge difference. Still being annoying this morning though (up at 5:30 again wtf?).

carrie he fed himself yesterday with very little cajoling. AND wiped his own bum after a poo (of course I had to clean up the poo smeared across his bumcheeks, but it is progress). What happened with ds1 in the end?

Think we'll get ds1's uniform this weekend. Is that a stupid idea being the first weekend of the summer hols? No idea when the rush on these things is?

dg I'd get his uniform sooner rather than later. Without wanting to panic you I noticed Sainsburys were already running a bit low last week as I topped up DS's uniform. If you are going to Clarks for shoes you should be able to make an appointment, saves hanging around.

If it helps I found that 6 pairs (3 packs of 2) trousers and 5 polos saw us through the year and meant I wasn't washing it all the time. In hindsight I wish I'd bought just a couple of logo polo's and topped them up with plain white ones and saved a bit of cash. DS wore his jumper all winter so it was pointless having a logo polo underneath.

I left DS1 lying on his bedroom floor with his blankie for twenty a few minutes. He did put his own pants and shorts on, I helped with socks. In that time he would have fallen asleep if he was tired enough, but that little bit of time out seemed to refresh him and see him through til bedtime!

DG I'd def get uniform now. I had to get it early last year as I was so heavily pg, so it was all labelled and ready by mid-July and I've already taken DD to get next year's stuff. M&S have their 20% discount so you can get better quality stuff at reasonable prices, also I found Sainsburys good (how they can make any money on a £2 skirt is beyond me) but I was really disappointed with Tescos quality of clothes.

We have a playhouse outside so the DCs do tend to go out most afternoons after school. Otherwise they climb the walls and drive me absolutely potty.

Today is DD's last day of reception sniff How very dare she grow up that much! Term actually ends tomorrow but she'll be at hospital all day having a radioactive kidney x-ray to check for scarring after the number of utis she's had. I desperately hope they don't find anything . She thinks hospital is marvellous, its synonymous with getting a cbeebies magazine and going to costa coffee for a juice!

carrie Hope your DD's x-ray was ok. Did she have to drink something? I had weirdy orange juice for my CT scans and iodine in my veins (CT scans are so not quick procedures!).

Meg DD is out having her x-ray as we speak, DH has taken her! I took her this morning to have the radioactive ('glow in the dark') tracer injected in. She had to have anaesthetic cream put on the back of both of her hands then come back 40mins later for the canula, which only took a few minutes. 40mins is just long enough to pop to costa coffee
She was amazing with the canula, I sat beside her looking at a wheres wally book to distract her, but actually she wanted to watch. There were at least 4 medical people around her (I was a bit overwhelmed ) and at one point two different massive syringes coming out of the canula, but she took it all in her stride. As we left a nurse stopped me and said "well done, whatever you did to prepare her you did really well". I said thank you and left quickly before she saw me welling up!
I've just got the playpen out of the garage and cleaned it up, to take the place of the sit-in activity centre, so we've got somewhere new to put DS2 when I need to go to the loo/turn my back for any reason. DS1 gave up 'helping' quite early and came inside to play. He's now sound asleep on the sofa!
Already loving the school holidays as I would have had to wake him by now to do the school run! Mustn't forget to get DS2 out of bed too

Last day of school tomorrow. 6 long weeks of boredom.
we should be ok, ds has a few days out and dp is taking him swimming once a week and triathlete club every sunday. We are slowly getting the house decorated and attempting the overgrown garden so if it is nice the kids can play out. If we ever do move I will have to do it all again, not looking forward to that.
We have our holiday to look forward to as well then back to school and college for me. 2 full days a week, should be manageable.
These holidays will fly by, won't they?

It's our first day of the summer hols today. Ds1 woke up at 5:20 then proceeded to whine at dh to take him downstairs for 20 minutes while I was trying to settle ds2 after a feed. So annoying. How do you deal with early risers who ignore the expensive Thomas go glow clock you bought to help understand the whole staying in bed till an acceptable hour concept? Am desperate for him to feel confident enough to go downstairs and watch tv by himself...could be a few years yet.

May attempt school shoe shopping this morning. Have a messy playdate this afternoon. Looking forward to the supposed sunshine this weekend.

dg I expect school will help with your DS1's early rising. DS ignored the Gro Clock I thought would solve everything, no amount of bribes, threats, begging, shouting made him stay in bed from about 3.4 to starting school at 4.10yrs. He's much better now, even if he does wake at 6am for a wee he usually goes in his room to play Lego for an hour or so, longer at weekends.

Am hoping so meglet. I'm also hoping he'll start sleeping through...

Got school shoes and plimsoles! Relatively stress-free in the virtually empty Clarkes today. Logo jumpers and polo shirts tomorrow. Should I get five of each?

Bookmarking

DG we've got by on one cardi and one jumper all year, plus three polo shirts. I wouldn't get five as they're pretty pricey. Good skills on the shoes and plimsoles!

Our staycation officially starts tomorrow, soooooooo exciting to have DH come home from work tonight and that's him with us all day every day and every evenings for 10 days

Ooh, hello you lot!

MrsA, I had to rofl at the thought of you giving that as your reason for snipping when requesting it from GP!

Hello mrs!

Got a bit carried away and bought 3 logo polo shirts in blue and 3 in white. 2 x jumpers and 1 x fleece. DS has a thing about long sleeves (weirdo has to be forced into a t-shirt in the summer if it doesn't have Ben 10 on it). School book bag too. Trousers and PE tshirts ordered as are name labels.

PTA organised a welcome picnic today which was nice and DS got a chance to play with some of the kids in his class. There's another one in Sep to refresh everyone's memories. So DS is slowly being immersed into this new world. Think he's getting quite excited about it. And I am feeling smug for having bought his entire uniform on the 1st weekend of the summer hols

Am knackered. Ache all over. We went proper camping for the weekend (Fri-Sun) with 3 other families and bloody hell was it exhausting, especially as the campsite is on a 'gentle' slope so we all slid down the tent at night. DD slept well as usual, DS woke about 5.20am grrr. But I'm not moaning, we had an excellent time, DD loved playing with 3 other girls her age and they even went on a proper rollercoaster on their own at the seaside (I felt sick) and loved it. They also found a crab on the beach and were devastated when it's legs fell off when they poked it cos it was an ex-crab.

Hello star hope all is good.And I know, but I want to make sure DS has a good life in the future, even including being able to give oral sex . I'm in 2 minds still about getting it snipped (the tongue tie I mean) - it doesn't seem to be affecting him now he is weaning and he does occasionally stick his tongue out. On balance, I think we will leave it and see.