December 2011 - they'll soon be one, put away the <haddocks> and bring out the bunting!

[seven77]

I loved kate's thread name but thought we needed a birthday theme for this one. We'll soon have 6 weeks of birthdays to celebrate!

Good work cheung i love being back at work I like the adult interaction (abd yes the money) and makes me appreciate the time with DS even more, wish I'd taken a few more months off though.

Well new shoes acquired went to Clarks he was a 4.5 G (big fat feet) they even took a photo of him and gave a little card with his name, date and size on with the photo on was so sweet.

Tonight DS is sleeping at PIL for 2nd time ever we finally seeing skyfall and then tomorrow we having day up at Worcester Xmas fayre before picking him up around 4. It's good for him to spend time away from us but will feel like my arms been chopped off!! Mil even cooking out tea tonight

He's got a bump on his head from this mornings carpet surfing but no other I'll effects!!

Took Sky to get her feet measured and her feet are so small they don't make shoes that size yet. So leaves me in a predicament as she loves being on her feet!

DSM I had that problem too but found some size 1 Lonsdale leather trainer-boot type things that fit her! Haven't seen size 1s anywhere else! Got them in Sports Direct.

Unless she's walking outside se doesn't need them, so just go with soft soles leather things. Star Child used to make some nice ones:)

DS has been in leather slipper things, and now what I'd described as structured velcro on slippers; we wouldn't bother but he needs them for nursery. When we get his first proper pair we will go to a place that does the whole picture business, plus you get to run the model train I'll fight DS for a go! I think from the look of it he has really fat feet....

He's just the same as your DSs figgy and seven, he just launches himself off things. First sofa nosedive was last weekend, but I wish he could do the sensible getting down bit!

All sounding good aethel, really hope that it goes through- have you got any initial idea of timings yet?

How is the wee man with tonsilitis, that seems so horrible for a child to get? And how did it go at the Doc's MissRee, you survive OK?

BTW, has anyone caught the OneBorn series at the moment, they're catching up on previous couples? Two so far, ranging from heart-warming to sob-inducing, and there's another next week.

BOi barfed. all over daddy.
BOi has 4h soft shews, but they sit in his nursery bag, and only get on his feet in the pram. He doesn't like walking in them. We prefer sox.
We also prefer not cooking tonight, so DH is calling Domino's. :) nom nom nom!

Freya pulls her socks off so seems to always have cold feet. I've given up keep putting them back on again! I got her the trainer things mainly to keep her feet warm and her sock on although she's figured out how to undo the Velcro now, the little monkey!

Docs went fine - smear was more uncomfortable than usual though. Get results in 2 weeks apparently and considering I've never had a "normal" smear first time, I'm expecting to have to go back and redo.

We also had a nosedive off the chair yesterday. We have two child sized armchairs that were given to us and are currently in the front room from Jack's bedroom. Freya managed to turn herself round and back off it the first time but wasn't patient enough the second and just launched herself head first.

We defo have a doozy of a fang coming through top left. She's going to look like a one-fanged vampire at this rate!

I got bargain Lego, LMF! The dinosaurs stuff - there was a big set (it was £50 in the shops when we looked today) for £14 on Amazon Black Friday deals last week! Hurrah! We're almost done on the shopping front now.

DS is in 5G's, mainly because of his enormously fat tops of his feet He is so chubby, it's unreal. I thought he would slim down somewhat when he started walking but he seems to just have got chubbier, particularly his cheeks, thighs and bracelet fat wrists

Last night was a write-off - DS woke at 3am, shrieking and babbling and generally distraught. Tried everything bar going for a car ride as it was below freezing (I did consider it though!) After an hour we brought him into our bed and he spent nearly another hour gnawing on my boobs and trying to headbutt me, screeching, whenever I tried to get him to stop and go to sleep. He finally went to sleep with his head pillowed on DH's shoulder, then slept in a bit and just had one enormous nap today from noon to 2pm.

Our nanny has done some serious organising for us, I'm just now realising as I went round this evening closing up the inner windows (it's arctic outside!)...I now just need to get off my arse and throw a lot of junk away before we move in January. aethel we're going for full packing, so they'll come all day before the move and will also bring all packing materials, boxes etc.

Oi usually I would be mega jealous of your domino's but I am revelling in our new (to us, hand-me-down from MIL) slow cooker. It's just the best thing ever to come into my life. Tonight I made pulled pork North Carolina style and we had it over rice with guacamole, sour cream and lettuce...it was brilliant!

DSM if you're thinking soft leather shoes Inch Blue do gorgeous ones, I've been eyeing them up for ages!

We will never ever be using Clarks again, after they fitted DS for a pair of clown shoes . Start-rite are more expensive but much nicer, plus there's a factory outlet an hour from us that sell them half price!

xiao we love our slow cooker, and the best meals are always ones where you just throw in whatever's in the fridge or cupboard. Chicken with tinned tomatoes, butter beans and peppers works well, and there's nothing better than coming home to beef stew when it's cold!

I finished making DS advent calendar yesterday, the Christmas magic is starting early, we told him the elves would come and fill it :o. It's full of chocolates, toy cars, farm animals and playmobil people.

It's been a good day here, our remortgage went through. Plus we got a quote for a new back door, kitchen window, soffits and guttering, 2.5k cheaper than we expected! Which means we should be able to afford to pay someone to put up a new fence and remove the hedge without it eating into the garage conversion/new kitchen budget. Then we'll be skint again, although we will finally have a nice house!

All our babies are either dinky or fat of foot! Wonderful...

I think you're so brave either considering - aethel - or going for - Xiao - full packing. It's my idea of total heaven, but DP is such a slob and hoarder I couldn't let anyone else but me do it. Plus I get to chuck piles of utter shite a few things away.

Hope the result's OK MissRee

I paid for full packing - when we moved 3 wks after my cs! There was no other way! It was worth it then, and taught me how to pack! And gave us all the boxes we needed when we moved out of the rented house.

(It's the wine that's choosing the exclamation marks.)
It certainly wasn't me.
!

!

It's the gin that's doing mine...

It's so bloody hard living with someone who's approach to life, decorating and tidiness is so different. This weekend I'm going to try to get DP to chuck these three shirts again. He's had them for at least as long as we've been together (nearly a decade) survived three house moves, and I've never seen him wear them

Aaaaaarrrgh!

-22 isn't too bad. It sounds silly but -2 here doesn't feel cold. I can get away with not wearing a coat. Some are still in shorts.

-35 however is a bit more hardcore. Stay outside for too long and your snot freezes. That's a most unpleasant feeling.

Want to see the warmest, cutest but most ridiculously expensive snowsuit ever? It's here. Yours for £200!

£200 it doesn't even have feet!
Stayin up all night catching up on I'm a celeb... DH and DS snoring merrily. :)

moose I love it! I am seriously considering this after a day at the playground yesterday - DS has a great coat but he was getting completely soaked through on the bottom as he wants to sit on the ground examining leaves and sometimes crawling as well as toddling. Luckily he had tights on under his trousers but eventually they soaked through as well. It was only 4c but we lasted about half and hour and had to cycle home again - luckily I had a hot chocolate from costa to wrap my hands around or it would have been more like 10 minutes.

northern good luck with that. I went through a voyeuristic phase of reading blogs about children/partners of hoarders which was shocking (pathological hoarding, like, 500 shirts, not just 3). I feel quite lucky that DH and I have similar levels of slobbishness - neither too neat nor too tidy. My weakness is not so much stockpiling lots of one thing (eg. 3 rolls of sellotape) but picking up one of everything just in case (one roll of sellotape, one pritt stick, one gorilla glue, one double sided tape) even though we just needed a pritt stick.

I'm going to try and declutter before they pack, but if (as is likely) we don't get around to it before Christmas we can try and do it at the other end.

Today is 1 Dec but I am waiting till Advent Sunday for my yuletide namechange (someone suggested a brilliant one for me on a thread over in Chat) and I'm going to try and convince DH to get our tree tomorrow

Harrison has some of these.You can buy sheepskin liners for them. They are brilliant.

xiao you've intrigued me, I want to know what your Christmas name will be!

moose wearing shorts when it's -2?! I thought DH was mad still running in shorts when it's +5 outside!

One of the ladies on my ante-natal threads waters broke yesterday at 15 weeks. It's really scared me how even after a good scan things can still go so horribly wrong. Her baby's been given a 1% chance of survival :(.

Hi everyone,

Seven that's really scary :( I know my friends neighbours waters broke at 24 weeks and I think they kept the mum in hospital and started labour a couple of weeks later and somehow everything was fine and healthy mum and baby. 15 weeks is a lot earlier though.

Moose those are very cute boots!

Northern can you get away with binning them or will he notice...?

Just finished wrapping birthday and Christmas presents for DS - DH got carried away and bought a ball pit and balls as well for DS's birthday!

Now nagging DH to get his Christmas presents out for me to wrap :o

Gosh you ladies are so organised with your birthday and christmas things it puts be to shame. I have bought one christmas pressie and a few stocking fillers. Have no ideas what to buy anyone really. I have bought a couple of things for Freya's birthday (11th) but she doesn't really need anything and we have a house full of toys already! We are contemplating finding a couple more of DS's old toys from the loft and wrapping them up! Or is that too stingy!

Northern - I have a hoarder too. Still has clothes from university 20 years ago!! As for the garage - well I leave him to that.

moose - hi and welcome. I love Canada , have been a few times (skiing, mountain biking and camper vanning on the west coast) and have rellies in Ottawa I have visited a few times. Even did my Uni dissertation in Canada. We seriously contemplated the move at one stage. I agree dry cold is much more doable than damp cold but still -22!

We've always packed for ourselves when moving but it is hard work. Is a good excuse for a sort out/throw out though.

No shoes here yet. She has some of DS soft ones but isnt that keen. I bought some very cute warm boots (pram shoes rather than walking shoes) but she loves to take them off and eat them so were rather a waste of money. She does get cold feet though as a result. I think she is probably a size 2, she is dinky really. She can still fit some 6-9 month stuff! Must post a more up to date photo on FB.

Oh seven, how sad. Poor woman.

Unusually, with these shirts he'd notice Cheung; I have binned various bits of crap over the years without him twigging, but as these have been such a point of contention for so long, and are pretty garish, he'd notice.

Sample conversation:
Me, in shop "do you want this pack of work shirts?"
Him "nope, it's got a white one in, I don't wear white shirts."

Me, later "there's a recycling bag turned up, and you know that you said you didn't wear white shirts, well there's three in your wardrobe that you're not wearing..."
Him "they're useful to have."

Good day here- got lots of jobs done, cleaned bathroom and shower, done various bits of banking and e-mailing. Tomorrow, it's extreme pruning of the trees outdoors, laundry, and BUYING OUR XMAS TREE!
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I can't wait to get decorating

And DS took his first step today- only one, but it's his first and we were both there to see it. Given he's at nursery full time, I was betting it would be there, or I would miss it seeing as I'm doing extra time at work, but nope, we caught it!

The worst thing about getting the pros to pack your house up, is that they pack everything - even things that are obviously rubbish. Empty boxes, etc. also, beware! The first lot left behind my photo albums from inside a built in cupboard. Luckily the vendors had my number, and let me know.
The removers also left stuff behind. We left them to it, but when we went back the next day to drop off the keys, there was a wardrobe box and loads of bags.
I haven't got BOi a birthday present yet. I'll bring him back something from Orlando this week perhaps. I'll get back on Sunday,the day before his birthday. I'll take Monday off work for his birthday and take him to the Blue Planet Aquarium, I think. :) I'll buy the Xmas tree in the morning, so that it can drop /settle whilst we're out.
I think we'll make a tradition of putting the tree up on his birthday. That'll be cool.

Gah. Been up since 3am with DD. She's had a temp/cold since Monday but I'm getting a bit worried that its turned into a chest infection or bronchiolitis as she's breathing quite fast and you can feel the congestion in her chest when she coughs. Will probably end up sitting in ooh drs all morning now!

I managed to get her back to sleep at 5.30am but she would only sleep on my chest like she did when she was a baby. I feel crushed this morning! 25lbs of weight on your chest for a few hours is not comfortable!

Hehe! Worth a try Northern! That's brilliant news that your LO took his first steps today and you were both there :o He was obviously saving it up for you!

Oi the aquarium sounds like a great idea - especially as it's indoors!

Not sure what we will do with Christmas decorations, I think I might put them up a week before Christmas. DS's birthday is Christmas Eve, so I don't really fancy doing the decorations the night before Christmas so he will have to have decorations up on his birthday :o

Muffin I'd definitely get to the dr's, if she needs antibiotics they seem to kick in quite quickly!

We are having a lazy day today at home I think.

Morning. I have a snoozing DS on my chest, this week we've dripped him down to 4 bottles a day by spacing them out with snacks/drinks, and he's been happy with it (phew!) and has doubled his food intake quite happily. Really funny when I took him to the HV (just for a weight as haven't been for five months or so , la la la) who said airily "oh, he only needs two bottles a day really if he's eating lots of dairy"... He's 21 lb but Is at that stage where they are so mobile they don't put much weight on for a while and just get longer and a bit skinnier.

Facepainted at the school fair yesterday (lots of Rudolphs!) and DDs loved it which is always nice. They were v pleased to see mr FC (I will enjoy this phase while it lasts!) and it was a little lump in throat as this may be the last fair we do at that school (sniff)...

Today we are going to see the new house so the girls can look around: still trying not to presume it's ours, as it's so unpredictable. Decluttering is happening at this end as like your DH northern we are both hoarders. dH was on strict budgeting as a child and got in the habit of never chucking anything, I was always brought up with a combo of "you never know when xx will be useful and "make-do-and-mend", and the whole eco thing of repair/reuse/recycle. Does anyone else else have a Rag bag, a bits-of-string drawer and a box full of spare screws/nails/random spare parts?