Brooking no argument for babies who sleep, eat, smile and behave perfectly at all times. Yeah right!

[scarletfingernail]

New thread, here we go...

I live in a cottage on an estate belonging to an earl. I have just phoned the estate office and the phone was answered by a most upper-class voice, who said that the office staff were out for lunch. I think I've just been speaking to the Earl of Rosebery.

is it not same with oil as lpg that the supplier has to restart boiler if you run out?

Too, how annoying re the oil. Does it get delivered regularly though? Must be such a faff having a heating system relying on it. Hope the estate gets back to you quickly. Does all sound rather posh though - a cottage on land belonging to an Earl?! Get you!

Ninja, we started Iz on food at about the same time as you're thinking of starting DD - mainly because she grabbed hold of my banana and shoved some in my mouth. She'd also been grabbing at our food for ages, making chewing motions and demanding noises when we ate! If she's ready, she's ready. I think the first thing we officially gave Iz was banana... but we wanted to BLW, not puree. Also thought ick to baby rice!

Scarlet, good luck with your homework. You're incredibly brave and strong to be going through all of this - I hope all your efforts pay off.

Dream, you poor thing. I'm often feeling exhausted with one - I can't imagine how hard it must be for you. However, as everyone keeps saying, this too will pass. I agree with what someone (Too?) said - if you can manage with all three on your own for a bit, so can DH. Even if just for a couple more hours in the morning. Even if it is just taking them all for a walk.

Pet, Iz is sometimes easily distracted, other times not! At a friends the other day, she dangled food off of the high chair, and their dog licked it before any of us could do anything - so we obviously had to take the food off her. She was in tears for ages, despite trying to switch it, distract her, cheer her up etc! I'm going to ignore the possibility of toddler tantrums. Iz will get over this phase and be a complete angel. Obviously.

Iz is being extra-grumpy today. It looks like a tooth may be on its way through - but then again I've only caught short glimpses as she won't let me look properly. Was supposed to be off to a party tonight but my mum's ill so can't babysit... may go for a bit and take Iz (though it's after her bedtime, but I figure an hour later to bed once in a while can't hurt!)... not sure. Have enjoyed this afternoon though - as my mum was supposed to be here, I had nothing work wise planned, so have just spent Iz's nap cuddling her (too grumpy to be put down) and watching DVDs. Ahhh.. :)

Ergh! Used ds's real name! D'oh. Have reported it.......

Too we are on oil here too. It's only the central heating so a tank lasts us a year. It's hard to know when is best to buy as the price fluctuates so much. Fingers crossed you get warm soon

I had DD weighed today. 18lb 15 at 28 weeks. She's going up the centiles, started at 75 and is now in the late 80s. Just need her to sleep for longer than 2 hours at night.

Aaaaaggghhhhhhhh. The f77king boiler has packed up. No central heating in our already freezing cold house and no hot water. FFS it's minus 3 outside. I've just shouted at DH because he said he'd be going to work as normal tomorrow. Leaving me in a freezing house with 2 small DC to go to his nice warm office. The plumber will hopefully answer his phone first thing. He's not picking up tonight and I can't say I blame him for that, it's probably the last thing he wants to hear about at 8pm.

Impressive weight gain by DD there Jen. It's amazing how different they all are even when so tiny. DD is 32 weeks and was 14lb 12oz on Monday yet will sleep 14 hours through the night. I still worry about her being so tiny for her age but surely she'd wake if she wasn't being fed enough .

Brooking for some teeth soon for DD Musical. This teething lark's been going on a while for you now hasn't it?

Sounds very posh Too. Is the Earl one of your neighbours? Is your boiler working now?

When our boiler stopped working last year it was the pipe that goes from the boiler outside taking the excess water out if something. It froze then the same thing happened to my mil. Is it worth checking if your outflow pipe might be frozen then disconnect it or defrost it?

DH thinks it's the pump but I've just read out your post to him and he's going to look at the pipe now. Thanks for that, will let you know.

not the pipe, but thanks for suggesting Hawthers

Hope you've managed to get through the night ok scarlet can you decamp to your mum's or a friends for the day?

Oh no Scarlet

How awful!

You and the dc are welcome here for any part or all of the day. You can stay here if they can't fix it today. You can't stay in a freezing house

When our boiler packed up last winter it was the same thing as Hawthers' with a frozen outflow pipe - apparently now you're not supposed to put them right outside but ours was done that way because its been in a few years

They've updated the MN app - I wonder if it works better now?

The smileys are still rubbish though

And maybe a ?

Great minds eh hawthers?

Ok so how do I do christmas smilies? I thought it was [sxxxxx]

I did [s smile] and it just gave me a normal one (you'll have to imagine the Santa hat on it)

Oh, this should be a Christmas one

Oh, it appears I was doing the Christmas one wrong, but when I do it right, they don't work at all

They're Christmas ones on my screen biscuits.

Grim scarlet, lucky you have biscuits kind offer and are your parents near ish too?

Yeah it's just the app where they don't work.

They do seem to have fixed the magic disappearing pointy brackets issue

Oh Biscuits you are so kind, thank you. We're ok for now, I'm going out with the DC this morning. We all went to bed wrapped up warm and it wasn't too bad. DD has her electric heater so her room was the warmest. But we can't stay here tonight if its not fixed today. No way. It is freezing this morning and I've just shrieked all the way through having an icy wash. The plumber is coming this afternoon, if he can't fix it there's no way we can stay here. He's warned us the last 2 times he's serviced it it that it won't last much longer so we'll see. At this rate we'll be claiming on the insurance for my rings and buying a new boiler with the payout .

I had a look at the new app for the iPad last week but didn't like it. Is it better than going though the full website now?

Seriously, scarlet if it isn't fixed you can stay here tonight. No probs at all xx

Oh no, Scarlet! Much, much sympathy. Ours is fixed now - I hope yours will be likewise very soon. Cakes, yes, the plumber has to restart the boiler if you run out of oil because it tries to suck oil and there isn't any, so gets a nice big air bubble in the system (or that's what I think the mannie said). We are supposed to pay for the call-out even though it's a rented house if it was our own fault the boiler stopped working, but the very very very nice plumber said 'shh, don't tell me!' when I started to explain, and when he'd finished he said 'if anyone asks, it was a faulty photo-electric cell'. Wasn't that kind? Jen, we go through about 4 tanks a year! of just the one!

Tis not posh, Musical - it's a farm cottage on one of the farms owned by the Earl of Rosebery, and nowhere near his actual house. I like it, though, because as there are so many tenants, they have a factor's office with clerk of works who organises repairs really quickly. In our last rented house the landlord kept trying to do all repairs himself, or got his mates to do them, and he was 70-odd and not very good at DIY. We moved out in the end because he couldn't fix the damp problem - I think it needed a new roof and he wasn't willing to pay for it. Here, you phone the estate and someone comes out the same day, usually.

Scarlet, cold showers are awful! I was spared that yesterday because the shower's electric, luckily. I am Brooking that the boiler is fixable this time and that you find your rings.

Brrrrrrrrr shiver me timbers it's blooming cold here. Plumber is here and it's not looking good I think a new boiler is on the cards and a night at PIL's...

Thanks for your very kind offer Biscuits. Whilst I'm extremely grateful, PIL live 2 minutes from ours and they have room for all of us so it makes sense for us to de-camp there if necessary.

At least DD is asleep in her nice warm bedroom. DS and I may as well be in the garden for how warm we are in our living room.

Of corse that makes more sense scarlet but you know where we are xx

Hope the boiler man magically fixes it and its not a new boiler xx

Oh my God. My card just got declined in a cafe . I had to leave my name and number and card number and DH is going to go in on his way home and pay the £11.95 I owe them. I got home, checked the bank balance and we're £230 overdrawn. F*ck. We need petrol, too, or DH isn't going to get to work next week. Payday is a week tomorrow and it can't come fast enough. I just hope DH's credit card has a wee bit of slack in it - enough for a bit of petrol, anyway. Having to apologise and explain myself to the cafe owner made me late to pick up M from nursery, I nearly crashed the car trying to park and then when I got home the dog had dragged lots of nappies out of the bin. Boak.

Anyone else feel like they're just pretending to be an adult and they keep f*cking up?

Oh too I feel like I'm on a treadmill and its set too fast and the controls are at the front and I can't keep enough to turn the speed down!

Being an adult is rubbish.

Brr scarlet hope plumber managed to sort it out...

i can't remember not having a 4 figure overdraft. Being skint sucks.