December 2011- <Haddocks> are in the deep freeze as we won't be needing them, no, siree! Grab a <cuppa>.......

[Aethelfleda]

Shiny new thread: we forgot to discuss the title this time!

That house is FAB missree! A great price. And if you don't need 4 bedrooms you could easily knock 3 and 4 together to make a larger masterbedroom and put an ensuite in - then you'd have a bathroom upstairs also. I love the split lounge, and the kitchen diner. V nice fireplace features. vair nice indeed!
TFI Friday!
I hope the poorly mums are feeling better (northern?).
We had another tough night last night. He was fine as he slept upstairs, just stirring every so often, but easily shushed back down. But when we all went down to bed, and he was disturbed, that was it. He was really, really upset. I gave him some nurofen stuff and teetha powder. And then DH brought his big teddy down, and a yellow cuddly star that plays twinkle Twinkle... so, after a good deal of snot and tears, we all bedded down together. DH, big teddy, yellow star, BOi n' me.
I've got next week off. His room will be decorated!

OK, I'm probably stupid. But I paid more, thru the TEdx website, just for morning tix (when the all day tix with groupon would've been £9 cheaper ). But the Groupon tix were for the Upper circle, so these tix may be a bit closer, and I'm not robbing them of the opportunity to sell the evening tix (its a not for profit thing).

Ah well it won't break the bank in the long run Oi, and allows you to feel virtuous and wear a smug face!!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! Tis official. I am stupid. The tickets have been emailed to me, they don't have seats allocated. "Turn up early" the ticket says.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
It may be an event about free thinking, but surely a little conservatism and decorum must be maintained. I don't want to be mingling with the great-groupon-unwashed"!

Thanks for all the well wishes. I officially feel like me again, although me that's been beaten up. Am off for MiL's birthday lunch v shortly.

That's wildly irritating aethel, you have these conversations with people to get things sorted, and then for them to backtrack....grr. And accuse you of trying to force them into a decision...double grr.

Morning twinkly head, aka mopsy, glad you don't have a hangover

Have half an hour to get ready now so must dash.

PS- thinking of you BJR

aethel maybe he had his mind on his work evening and wasn't in the right head space. So annoying though when you're excited and thinking about making a big decision and they back track! I had the same on baby names and it was very frustrating!

Well, minigee slept through from 12-7am! She then went down for her nap drowsy but not asleep and did a very quiet grizzle for 5 mins then slept for 45 mins! Again, not done anything differently so all a bit of a mystery. She does have 8 teeth now though and has started crawling, pulling up and cruising all in the last few weeks so maybe its a combination of all those things. Just hope it lasts!

We finally have clapping, and egg-laying! Well, only one chicken is laying, the rest still face the casserole dish if there's no eggs come spring.

Glad you're feeling better northern.

aethel sorry to hear the dream house has gone, I'm sure it will all work out in the end and you'll get somewhere fantastic. Feel free to break out the Haddocks in the meantime.

Had a very productive day yesterday. I went to buy maternity bras, and also came home with more Christmas presents, a sew your own advent calendar and a yoghurt maker which was half price in Lakeland, I'm a sucker for that shop. There's now a kilo of apricot yoghurt in the fridge! Also made big pans of lamb stew and beef and lentil casserole for DD to go in the freezer.

What do you do when LO won't eat what you've cooked for them, do you cook something else or just get them something easy? I don't want to start cooking different things but I worry about her getting a balanced diet when she just has toast and raisins for lunch.

Anyone seen HLC? I haven't been on the fb group lately, hope she's ok.

Hi everyone ! Cherry here but thought in anticipation of the holiday I'd have a name change....mmmm cheung fun....will be eating lots of it :)

Just trying to catch up on the thread - it may take me a while!

Quick update here, I loved my kit days and (am I a bad Mum?) I didn't miss DS! To be fair though work was non-stop and I did look at photos of him on my phone at lunch and I guess I did rush back home to see him!

FIL has backed out of looking after DS regularly on Tuesdays when I go back to work. I had always planned on paying for 3 days a week childcare so I was pleased when he offered to look after DS one day a week. I think it will be for the best as although I know he means well his "helpful observations, questions and advice" are wearing thin.

The 2 days with the CM were good/bad - very good as I didn't worry about her looking after DS at all, but bad because we both put down his grumpiness to teething, but on taking him to the dr's we now know he has tonsillitis! Whoops! If she can manage him when he's poorly along with another 2 kids then she is a super mum & CM as far as I'm concerned! :)

Unfortunately our CM is fully booked now, so I'm going to have a look around a few nurseries again for the Tuesdays! Hey ho! DS will have the best of both worlds then with nursery and CM...pros and cons to both so he will certainly have a lot of new experiences!

Right going to catch up now!

Seven, I'm loathe to cook 2 different meals! On the odd occasions when DS doesn't eat much, I tend to offer him 'snacky' type things like a banana, raisins, apple, cherry tomatoes, toast, cheese, yoghurt and let him fill up on that. Sometimes I think it's not that they don't like the food, just that they're too tired to eat or bored of the same thing.

MissRee hope LO is better today than yesterday?

Ooooh second viewing good. Downstairs back rooms are a little dark as I suspected but fine really and no darker than current house which doesn't bother me. Going to put in an offer, prob 5% below asking price..,

cheung you might find it for the best that you now have another day childcare to pay for now fil let u down at least u don't have to worry about being let down on the day. My PIL live down road and say they want DS but they v unreliable.

Well after waking at 5.30 he had a 30 min sleep at 9 then a 2hr sleep after singing and swimming this morning he's now eating lunch 2hrs late bless.

Haha mopsy is the cutest drunk ever (twiddle head!) glad the water nixed a hangover.

I got slightly pissed myself last night - one glass fizz, one white, one red - all small though so I was merry but not hungover. Was at a dinner with Housemaster and another teacher and their wives, one of whom is a conservation scientist and is about to head up a 12-18 month special restoration project of the painting that was just defaced (wink wink). Was SO cool to talk to her but we were all sworn to secrecy on actual details as the media have been all over it.

CheungFun I knew it was you before you said who you were - yum yum, so jealous! We had dim sum last weekend though, best place ever for a baby - noisy, packed with families and lots of nice small things to eat!

(((Aethel))) hope today is better and DH realises what a lucky escape he had from haddocking. I know this move will be great for you all in the long run with the shorter commute and more family time, and will be worth the short term upheaval. (I'm one to talk - I've cried every time I've ever moved house (except when I moved in with DH from a shitty trumpington spare room, that one I celebrated)).

Hope you are all out in the sunshine today. We went to a neighbours' for lunch and starting next Fri we are going to start a babysitting swap - I look after her 2 year old and my DS so she can have a few hours on her own, then we'll swap over. Will be good practice for me looking after both of them...eek!

She's much better today thanks Cheung Little monster has been on top form - she clearly just needed a "day off" as did I She's still snotty but coping with it iykwim?

Just a quick one as on my phone...how many bottles do your babies have now they are on 3 meals a day?

God when do threenagers stop being a pain in the arse? I've been nagging all day and getting constant whining , hitting and general stropiness back. Totally tedious. Have not been a nice mum

dsm DS is on 20oz a day, 7oz breakfast and bed and 2 3oz in day trying to work out how do combine the 2 day bottles into 1 6oz but hardly seems worth it now he's approaching 1 (no!!!!!)

Mrs, Freya is still on 4 bottles a day - 8am, 12pm, 4pm and bedtime (between 7 and 8). She has 7oz first thing and the rest are 6oz. She drains them s well as her 3 meals a day and us following the 25th centile perfectly.

Hawthers I don't think it classes as being a not nice Mummy if toddler is being not very nice either Can't help with when it will get better though as although DSS was 3 when DP and I got together, he's always been a freakishly good child except when it comes to food

Octoboy has as many boobs as he deems necessary. Bottles are hilarious but not for food apparently. He likes a bit of water out if his beaker:)

We're a bit hit and miss.

Have been giving breakfast before milk in the am a la AK but not sure if that is right. I offer 5 oz at 9 and 11 and 7oz at 4 and 8. He varies massively what he actually drinks from 9 oz total (v bad) to 20 odd. Today he has had 13 but he had eaten really well and naps were at the wrong time so he slept through the 11am one.

Have no idea what I'm doing and feel like I'm doing it wrong. Hmm will he interested in the consensus.

Thanks for birthday wishes everyone. Pretty unexciting day, though DH did at least remember cards,presents, cake and even some flowers. Compared with nothing for our wedding anniversary I was pretty pleased. A non eventful day of music with Freya, tescos and house stuff, with a quick peek into fat face to spend some birthday vouchers, but did not get much time with freya there too. evening was fine until F woke at 10pm and we couldnt get her back to sleep till 1am ish, with a large argument about methods with DH too.

F still not asleep tonight either - she is being a pain about going to bed and if we leave her to cry it out she just gets worse and worse - and stands up rather than lie down. What do other people do when they won't go to bed?

BOi has a couple of oz at 8 with his breakfast. His first bottle is at 10 - 10:30 of 6 - 7oz. Lunch at 12. Bottle number 2 at 2 (6oz) (apart from today, I was out shopping and he slept and I forgot! Whoops. hawthers I am the bad mum!), dinner at 4:30-5, last 7oz bottle at 7pm. And this week he has cried every night when he's drained it.

Hi girls, thanks for the support. Much better day today, DH home and all is OK. Very busy work day which probably helped.

Est agent happy cos he thinks he has a sale (and we do like this house oi, we've viewed several around the area and internetted tons more... Not going to post a link on here as it's an open forum but pm me if you want to see and oogle... It's not certain by any means as we still need a buyer, but I really do think we can do this and it's a long term see-all-DCs-through-school job. If it works.

I have a milk monster: five 6.5 ounce bottles a day and almost always drained. Plus three meals and intermittent snacks and the occasional steal from the DDs . Yesterday he managed to nick and eat most of a pear from DD2, pretty impressive (if messy!)

Oooooh good luck lady! V exciting!
(I thought I'd bought a house that needs nothing doing... Turns out, I need to change everything!! ...everything works, it's just that I have ideas!...)
Good luck Aethel, get that buyer!! X

We're on 4 7oz bottles - first when ever he gets up for the day, 11, 3, and about half 6. Doesn't always finish them all so probably getting between 20-25oz.

DP got his brother to babysit last night so we could go out for dinner, have a bit of time to ourselves and talk. Started really well and was hopeful, but then went a bit downhill. He has had to go into work today, he said sorry for being an idiot before he left. We're just going round in circles, but actually taking the step to leave seems huge. My parents are coming to visit next week, so at least i'll have a bit of support from them.

Fingers crossed for you for the house Aethel

Cheung hope DS is feeling better soon. I agree with Figgy on the childcare front, at least now that your having to go with CM/nursery for all the days you won't have to worry about FIL letting you down on the day if he can be a bit unreliable.

Oi have fun decorating BOis room this week. What's the next room on your list to tackle?

Jiggle hope Freya's sleep gets better soon. I've got no tips on the sleep i'm afraid, DS is a bit rubbish at sleeping at the best of times.

Right must go and give DS his breakfast, he's trying to eat the end of the sofa so maybe he's hinting!