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! :)

Aw that's really sweet Ninja.

I hope all is ok MrsA.

carrie that's a lot of babies!! I do enjoy hearing about birth announcements and I'm eagerly awaiting a dear old friend's imminent announcement,

We have passed on most of the dd's baby equipment to dh's cousin this weekend. Although I vowed no more dc's, saying goodbye to baby bits has made me feel quite . Then I remember sleepless nights and feel a bit better!

Paralympics tickets for 7th Sept and taking the dd's this time.

Just got back from a week in Cornwall. I think the DC's enjoyed it, they're happy to be home though.

kagey Most of our baby stuff is long gone but I still have the 3 wheeler from DS's birth, so it's almost 6 years old now and DD still uses it occasionally. I know I need to get rid of it next spring but it will be the end of an era.

We have two milestones today (one more exciting than the other).

1. DD is not wearing nappy pants in bed tonight. TBH she's been dry at night for a few months but I wanted to leave it and wait until we were home from holiday. Fingers crossed she'll be ok. We will be a nappy-free house!

1. After 5.5 yrs the kitchen stair gate has finally come off (well, it finally broke) so it doesn't look like babies or toddlers live here anymore. The dc's have been able to open it for a year or two but it stopped them charging in when I was cooking. They used to hang over it when I was cooking and I would feed them tit-bits like little goats .

DD is on the move - backwards, but increasingly fast. So have been re-child-proofing the dining room and my room as fast as possible!
She's also finally figured out how to have food in her mouth and not push it out immediately and is starting to really enjoy the adventure of food - she grabs the spoon instantly and tries to feed herself like A never did - mostly by getting it onto her hands and then licking them after stabbing herself in the face a few times!

Life is so incredibly exciting for her that she doesn't want to go to bed, so we're spending evenings with her in the high chair watching us.

A had his first going to a friend's to play and have tea - it felt so grown up!

Need to get new kitchen stairgate as the last one got pulled off when ds and dn decided to use their combined weight on it...

Aw ninja that's so lovely :)

kagey as someone who received all our baby stuff from some friends who had finished with it, I know you'll have blessed the socks off your DH's cousin and given them a brilliant start. I was so wrapped up in having our first baby it never occurred to me what an end of an era it was for those giving us things Mine you they were emigrating to Australia

meg how's it going being a nappy free household?! DS1 is dry more often than not, so we're not quite ready to ditch them overnight yet. And DD is still in pull ups at night, so we've still got three in nappies

NC your DD sounds gorgeous and a lot of fun! How was your DS's dinner date?

My friend who was being induced had her baby on Wednesday morning and I met him for the first time today. Given that he was 9lb 9oz he was tiny and cute and gorgeous!

DS2 has his birthday party tomorrow. I've baked the cake. And then the spare cake when the first one didn't rise. Need to wrap the pass the parcel tonight (entirely for the benefit of DD and DS1 ) then I think we're all systems go!

Gosh has it been a year already carrie?!

meg fab news on the milestones, ds1 here is still filling up most night time nappies.

Ds2 has started shuffling around his cot enough for us to have to separate the cot from our bed and put the bars up . Can't believe we're at this stage already. He's 20 weeks tomorrow. Not yet sitting unaided so not sure when we'll start weaning but he's making some attempts to grab food from my plate! A lot can happen in a few weeks I suppose.

Ds1 is having a swimming party next Saturday. Have to find some inflatables tomorrow to make it a bit more fun.

Hope the party went well carrie.
Toby is having a family party at home with a gruffalo theme :)
I have a gruffalo,piñata and a pin the tail on the gruffalo game too :)
I was going to bake a cake, but I saw a gruffalo one in sainsbos today so that's that decided!!
Can't believe he will be 4. 4!!
And ds1 will be in double figures next year! (weeps)
back to school and pre school on thursday...Toby is going 5 mornings per week...haven't told him yet, mind.....:)

Happy birthday Toby!
DS2's party went really well thanks, it was small by virtue of most people being on holiday, but it was great. This morning some friends organised a little party for him too as we were meeting up at one of their houses, so we've had a lovely time and I'm not feeling too emotional....!

carrie DS2 is 1 already! It goes too fast after the first one doesn't it. Glad you've had a nice time .

I had to explain periods to DD today. As we've been out and about so much this summer the DC's kept asking me what the machines were in ladies toilets so I decided to give her the easy basic info. Hopefully I've got that covered and she will remember a bit of it. I've found it much easier explaining stuff when they're young, they don't get at all embarrassed.

badvoc Hope Toby enjoys being back at nursery. Good luck with the pinata (how do you get the line above the 'n' ).

I would love to say it was in purpose but sadly not...iPad autocorrects it!
I love that you think ,I am that clever :)

Bookmarking. Just back from 6 good days in Dorset but now trying to sort out arrangements for travelling up to Scotland as DH's grandfather died last night and the funeral is next Monday. Trying to work out what to do with the boys. It's all very complicated!

I am sorry to hear that debi x

Bookmarking again!

Back from the weekend camping on Monday, which was great - it was a single parents' holiday which DD1 really liked and they were both fab. Slept well, became wonderfully feral and made friends!

Now their Dad's taken them to Ireland to see his family. It's their 5th holiday this summer (and I begged him to keep them at home for the last week to get some rest). DD1 said can she have fewer holidays next year!! Saying that, they've had a good time on them all and will have lots of memories.

I'm down to London to visit me aunt and uncle and go to the last night of an Aikido club that I used to go to - my friend from New Zealand is coming over for it and I haven't seen her for years so am very excited :)

I can't believe all the birthdays are starting, they're all so grown up.

debi so sorry to hear about your DH's grandfather. How is your DH doing? Hope you manage to get the plans sorted without too much stress.

Toby was just crying before bed :(
"I want to stay at home,all the time with you mummy"
:( :( :(
Tears tomorrow I think
All done...uniform and pe kit marked up, new lunchbox sorted, new drink bottle...
I have found the hols exhausting but will really miss them tomorrow :(

How did it go badvoc?

Sorry to hear about your DH's grandfather debi.

It's DD's birthday next week and I have no idea what to do for her cake. I'm thinking a buttercream topped sponge but decorated with something, I wanted to put some moshi monsters on but she vetoed it when I suggested it. I refuse to do Hello Kitty as she had one last year. I could do something with those poncy Shleich animals, a farm maybe.

My best cake as a kid was cowboys and indians, a chocolate fort with mint matchmakers as the wooden beams all round it . Or the chocolate owl with choc digestives for eyes and covered in flakes for the feathers.

My best cake as a kid was a swimming pool. Square cake, chocolate fingers vertically all round the side, and filled with chopped jelly and lego people 'swimming'!
DD had a giant flower for her 4th birthday. Asda do quite nice edible cake toppers so you could get her to decorate her own...?
I'm loving the owl idea...we could sooo use that for DS1 in a couple of weeks. Although he's asked for a hippo cake He has no toy hippo, and has shown no previous interest in hippos. Seriously I have no idea what goes on inside that boy's head!

My dad used to decorate cakes for people. I remember a swimming pool one as he got me to spend a few hours sorting hundreds and thousands to remove all the red and Orange ones - back in the days when hundreds and thousands weren't the insipid colors they are now. May have to get American family to mail proper lurid cake decs. A sometimes wants a Numberjack Four on his cake (he had 3 last year), sometimes Octonauts or a specific creature. I am not doing a Combtooth Blenny cake. Nor a snot sea cucumber...
For a present he wants Hungry Rhinos. Like Hungry Hippos only with horns. I wonder if blutack might work?
Looks like we're having a party with about 10 3-4 yr olds. What do I do with them???

It's A's birthday today! Four whole years. This time four years ago I was asking for my mum as the contractions were ramping up.

We have totally overindulged him and bought him a vtech innoPad. After refusing a free leappad last year when I directed the commercials for them . Went into Smyths earlier this week to look for one of those electronic circuit kits but they've stopped doing them - meanwhile A spent 30 minutes playing the demo vtech thing and we shrugged our shoulders and thought to get him something he'd play with rather than something I think he should play with. Currently wrestling with my conscience about adding to the number of screens in the house - but he's off to school in just over a week so he won't be on it 24/7.

And attempting a treasure chest cake for tomorrows party. Swimming pool would have been easier but A isn't a jelly fan!

nc we were at a party last weekend - pass the parcel and the piñata were big hits. They'd also bought mini bouncy castle £20 from tesco apparently which went in the garden and was also v popular.

carrie If I get chance I will take a pic of the Owl cake in the photo album at mums house. From what I remember it was an oval / round cake on it's side, then the choc bic eyes, flakes all over, not sure about the beak and ears though.

I suspect my parents agreed to it as they could scoff all the flakes as they decorated it.

Those cakes sound amazing!!
Toby is having a giant cupcake with lots of buttercream :)
He was fine uesterday, thanks for asking :) walked in without a backward glance!
Ds1 also quite happy when he came home :)
I have it a pin the tail on the gruffalo and gruffalo piñata for Toby's b day....I would love to do a gruffalo cake t have no idea how I would, whereas sainsbos have a ready made one....hmmm...
Happy birthday A!!! X

Birthday party went very well! Kids loved the swimming, they're all so confident at this age. Ds2 is a total water baby and loves being in the pool. Then we all went to the pub where I'd set a table up for the kids. They were all so knackered from swimming they patiently sat there till their food came and then ate it all with the minimum of fuss. Bro

Oops, phone a bit trigger happy there. Cake went down well and we all came home not having to do any washing up!