January 2008: I'm four and 'they're all mine!'

[latrucha]

Sorry Simposn. Just couldn't resist.

Novice question: Parents evening next week, we will get appointments sent to us with teacher, speech therapist and physio. Between 4 and 6pm. Nathan gets home at 4.45pm and it's half an hour drive to school. We both want to speak to teacher. Is it acceptable to pick Nathan up from school and keep him with us? Or are you supposed to turn up sans child?

I don't know for sure, but I was always there with my mum at parents' evening. I'm going to have both of ine with me tonight. There's no choice for me as DH is in Poland but I'm pretty sure it's fine.

Nice to see you Madmouse

Very common to turn up with child in tow so don't worry
I often end up taking a different child just to make life interesting... t attending H's this week for eg as its straight from his swimming and h will be happiest in the bus home and playing with Kirsty.

First governors meetig later & dh finally back from his work trip. Think I'm over the worst of this cough but still not great.

I never take my kids but that is because there is only one of me to keep them quiet and listen to what the teacher is saying, but plenty of parents do take their kids...

I have my DC parents eve tonight!! Luckily next door are having them (have got their daughter ATM whilst they are at the school) as my parents are both busy...

Well parents' evening went fine. Anyone else had one yet?

I'm hoping you can make me feel a bit less of a horrible mummy: I told Sabela off today in the playground after school today. Not many people were there but there were some and they did look. I didn't say anything wrong as such but it was public. I didn't really think until afterwards.

Ugh. What a horrid thing to do.

Oh I have sooo been there!!

Molly has had a few hissy fits and I have shouted at her!!!

Am reeling a bit from Molly's parents eve tbh....

The night before parents eve I was doing J's spellings with him and Molly has to have a go too (even though she can't spell yr3 spellings obv.)

Anyway, the day of parents eve I was outside yr1 classroom reading with yr1 kids and M's teacher goes past and says to me that Molly had told her she did J's spellings the night before. So she went and got them and did them with her and she got them all right I did not tell her the night before she had got them right or wrong just said well done etc etc...

Anyway fast forward to parents eve,Molly's teacher was running late so spoke to HT who told me Molly came to her office (with the spellings to show her) but was scared of HT so cried!!!

Basically Molly is starting yr1 work after Xmas and is on G&T list etc etc reading very well (numeracy the same as reading which me tbh....

J's parents eve not so positive but still good , he has a few things to work on like participating in class ( hard for a shy kid)....

Was supposed to at my placement today but Molly woke up with a fever, my goodness I had forgotten how hard work she is by herself

LaT what message would you give S if you would let her get away with things because you were in public and afraid to tell her off? If she misbehaves she needs correcting there and then. People who think they would never can take a walk and jump.

Agree with the others.

Anyway, I would bet on the fact that they were looking and thinking:

• thank goodness it's not my kid misbehaving, this time
• that's a good Mum, making sure her LO learns how to behave

or

• now, if i rush to the shops, get the shopping done with LO, i can probably get the dinner done in time before rushing onto activity X, then get DC home and bathed and into bed before DH comes home, and I can maybe have a glass of wine in peace, etc. etc. ....

Well, in all honesty I could have done it better. It doesn't seem to have affected her much though as she misbehaved again today in the school yard (not leaving when I asked / running off repeatedly). I did do it in a better fashion today.

Sorry Simpson - I forgot to respond to your much more important news. How are you feeling now? Do you think it's the right thing for her? She's clearly got an aptitude for academic work. Well done you.

Still a bit reeling from it tbh...

She got a list of spellings to learn today for next week and we practised them tonight and she got 6/10 (more than J!!)

Luckily she went back into school today because I could not have coped with her at home again.

Have a day off tomorrow so planning to go into town for some Xmas shopping (my parents have given me the cash for J's pressie as they don't have a clue which wii game he wants)...

Simps - i x-posted before. Wow for M. And crikey for you. It can be a stressful job parenting a G&T child (even more than normal obv).
Great though that she has stuff she's brilliant at to sort of 'make up' for the physical side of things. Kind of explains why she can be so full on at home too.
Hope J is alright with his kid sister doing his spellings!

How are you all? How's the classroom going Simpson?

I am currently having a complete mare about references. See here. Any good ideas very gratefully received.

I don't regret taking this time off to be with the children, byt goodness me I had no idea what it would cost in terms of the difficulty of going back to work.

Filly - if you're there, can you point me in the direction of the tips for the doll cake you did for T's last birthday, please? One is required!

I'm so sorry, I fell off the thread again, and then I couldn't find you all.....:(

In my defence, I had an operation on my left wrist 3.5 weeks ago that left me totally unable to type for over 2 weeks, and its only starting to get back to normal(ish) now....and then, just as I was getting over that, I picked up a horrendous bout of sinusitis from Mia and perforated my eardrum. Oh yes, it's been a barrel of laughs in our household recently....

Highlight was this weekend, when dh and I were both properly, impressively ill. Both of us still lying in bed at 9am on Saturday morning, unable to move. Ended up sending A downstairs with the girls to give them breakfast by himself.....!!

Bless, he did a good job and got them started on their cereal before I even dragged myself downstairs. Now I just need to get him to practise cutting bread by himself, and I can retire for good :) :)

In other news....I start my new job on Monday. Absolutely terrified, especially as its back to being very full time (so a lot more than 9-5), and its been 9 years since I started in a properly new place. Eek. Had a lovely leaving drinks last week, although I would have enjoyed it more had I not been in massive ear pain and been able to hear what people were saying!

What else? well, M is pretty much toilet trained, so nappies are gone (except at bedtimes), which feels like a giant step forward. T is still swinging between being angel-child and a pre-teen, although less bad than she was a few months ago. M is still the biggest drama queen on the planet, and A is (mostly) being pretty fab at the moment. Parents evening last week was pretty good - T is doing fine, socially very integrated and happy, and A had amazing reports from all his teachers and is doing incredibly well at everything.

M on the other hand....well, lets just say the nursery called last week for an hour to discuss how to manage her 'behaviour' . Although it did turn out that she had thrush and sinusitis, so was really not very well....

Simpson - I cannot get over M's amazing school progress :) :) :) That really is mind-boggling!

JKS - loved the bath pics :) Hows M doing? She must be getting so big now!

Madmouse - how's N doing on the school bus?

LaT - how do you feel about the return to work? The cake is from the betty crocker (US version) website and comes with a full video....Link is www.bettycrocker.com/videos/videolibrary/birthday-cakes/princess-doll-birthday-cake but as you'll see there are tons of other choices. I baked the 'dress' in a standard pyrex bowl, its very easy....and I know you're amazing at sugarcraft so you'll be fine at icing. I went with buttercream, like in the video, but a friend of mine did the same cake a few weeks later with royal icing and proper sugarcrafty stuff, and it looked totally amazing.

Sorry for rabbiting on for far too long....

PS LaT - best thing I did was to buy 2 identical 'fashion dolls' from the pound shop. I pulled the legs off the one I used in the cake (esp after I discovered that the 'stick dolls' from the cake shop cost about £14!) and tied her hair out of the way until I was finished.....didn't let any of the dcs see the cut-in-half doll, and gave T the intact one after the party.

Filly - good thinking on the doll! Have been following your medical mishaps on FB, hope you are fully recovered in time for new job (what is it you do? I may have known but have forgotten if I did).

M is brilliant thanks, she's bright as a button and so funny. Though she is working on her diva status already, eek.
She's not good at understanding H's 'boundaries' so sometimes sets him off which is not so good. T is better at negotiating around him. Not that we tiptoe round him all the time but sometimes you have to know when to give him space/not take his Thomas/etc.

PIL coming later, Dh's black-tie work do tomorrow night, colleague staying here overnight, she's single with no kids, and i'm stressing about a house full of kids, cats, mess, jobs that need doing, etc.

Then i popped into friends new house this morning, they both work, have 3 kids, have just moved in, lots of teething problems with the house, boxes everywhere, his 40th tomorrow, youngest DC's 1st bday soon, Christmas coming up, etc. and suddenly my life seems calm in comparison

I hope you're having a good time JKS - is it tonight you're out? I'd love to kno what you're wearing - black tie is very far from my house! I have a friend whose son has mild autism which her DD, who is older, is terrible at making allowances for so M is in good company!

Filly - thanks for the link and the tip. I feel like I need a good cake making session to cheer me up. You've got a lot on. How is the new job? And how's your health? I am got very frustrated about the reference problem I linked to. I think I have now found a way around it but haven't done so yet. The kinds of work I can do at the moment are very part time. I feel fine about it. I don't know how I'd feel if things weren't as they have been but I feel pretty scared at how difficult it will be for me to get back into a job that pays well and pretty compromised being a SAHM now.

School fundraising is a bit full on, isn't it? In the last two weeks we've had two charity dos, a tea towel to buy, school trips, concert tickets, raffle tickets, donations for the Christmas fair, and donations towards the class bear's birthday present and party. I've had to raid my savings to not go into overdraft! Effing bear....

It's tonight LaT :)

No idea what I'm wearing yet, I have a stock of various suitable dresses (which fit now i'm almost at target weight, yey). Just think i'll be really cold as i don't have any with sleeves or a jacket-thing that would work. I will prob end up in a long dress, either black with some beading bits or navy velvet-ish. And a shawl thingie over my shoulders until i warm up. Not really a clothes/fashion-type so it's all a bit hit and miss!

Sounds lovely! Well done on weight. I hit 'not overweight' on the BMI and even though it's 2kilos off my preferred weight I have been resting on my laurels. Must get motivated again.

Things better here. Beginning to feel it's going to work. Patience really is a virtue.

Well done so far on the weight thing, i find i plateau every now and then and need a new kick to get moving again.
My target is (metric) 54kgs, and I've reached 54.4, which is obviously very close, but not quite!

I went for black with sequins dress - M was v interested, lol!
And my wedding shoes which i've had dyed black, as they are a rarity - heels I can wear!

Oh and yey for things improving :)

Christmas tree is up, other decs & assorted festive tut i mean crap i mean stuff in a big mess so far, I need a new energy boost to tackle any more.

JKS - did you enjoy yourself??

I have had J off sick today as he started throwing up at 2am....

Meant I could not go in and help with the yr1 kids as I usually do but got an unexpected lazy day as J was not up for going out anywhere.

Just had to take M to school and back. She is full of excitement about her nativity and is an angel

We have to provide the costumes which I was a bit about as we have never had to do this before but luckily next door who have a child in M's class have given me an angel costume that they don't need as their daughter is a shepherd

Hope J is well enough to go into school tomorrow as its my placement day....

Hi all,

How are all the preparations for Christmas going? I think we're fineJust meal planning as DB and Step mother are coming for Christmas. I hope DB is up for early mornings, as he is on the sofa bed and will be disturbed. Won't tell him just yet as he did ask, when I was telling him what presents i wanted - which are all kitchen related - whether I sat and flicked through Lakeland catalogues all day. I thikn he deserves a bit of a rude awakening, literally and metaphorically.

S 'gets' a lot more about Christmas than she did last year and loves all the nativity stuff. Well, there is a baby, eh? She is very confused about the baby Jesus though, what living is, what dying is, where Jesus is, what happens when you die. She is going to a Catholic school becuase of DH, and although I am not a Catholic I am giving simple answers in sympathy with what she has been told there (they were told April Jones had gone to live with Jesus in heaven). I feel a fraud, but I can't really face telling her that we put Grandad in the ground. Yes, she does still remember! That's probably why it's such an issue for her.

LaT - all going well for Christmas here. My parents are meant to be joining us, though my Mum is unwell and being a tad pathetic about it if I'm honest. Think my Dad will just drag her up here regardless as he doesn't want to spend his Christmas with just her knowing he's welcome here where there's wine, good food (care of DH I must point out!), kids having fun, etc. Well just have to keep sending my Mum to bed if she gets too miserable - rather like a small child

Presents all sorted, wrapped, etc. Just have to do the creeping around with them on Christmas Eve but which I like but find stressful at the same time.

Brother may pop over for some of the weekend too.

T is very excited, obviously.
H doesn't get it really but will be keen to open presents when it happens.
M tried to open some wrapped stuff under the tree earlier so she'll have no probs figuring it all out
She is zooming along; trying to learn her colours and counting already, despite a total lack of effort/time/enthusiasm from us. Scary stuff after 2 slow-burner boys!

Simps - It was fine, it was a work thing so not really my fave night out! Had a better time last night with a group of mums in a pub

All still full of coughs & colds here, M at least keeps going back to sleep if she wakes in the night coughing. H though, is another story. Once he wakes up, that's it. Regardless of time. Not a huge amount of sleep had here recently.

Wishing you some sleep for Christmas, then JKS. D sounds a bit like M. With S I felt like I spent for ever pointing, 'Red, yellow' painstakingly drawing circles, squares and triangles, 'practising' the shape sorter etc. With D, I feel like I said, 'Ok. That's red. That's yellow. Got it? Fine' and he did.

The children are excited but not in a really grabby way (actually Danny is mad for presents, but I could wrap his favourite car in a bit of newspaper and he'd be thrilled). S has shown no interest in making a Christmas list. All she really wants to do is draw and maybe build a bit. The rest of the time she spends on 'adventures' as an amalgam of all the things she likes: pirate baby sister monster explorer detective doctor character. The only thing they really want is oodles of chocolate.

I am on a cookathon, so I don't feel resentful and tied up in the kitchen the whole time bro and DSM are here.