March 2005 part 6 - Toddling towards summer!

[leogaela]

And her it is!

REally lovely to read everyone's posts again. Its a bit quiet here during the week and livens up at the weekend when I don't seem to get time to logon!

Niklas still isn't as clever as Iris and Lauren with talking but he has started shaking and nodding for yes and no and (sometimes) points to his nappy when he is weeing or has pooed. Still runs off when I tell him we have to change it though ! He has tried but hasn't managed to take his nappy off himself yet thankfully!
He had a 'chat' with his friend on the phone yesterday, it was soooo cute and funny, his voice went all soft and sweet, not his usual shout. They were playing together on Sunday, she is 2 at the end fo the month, but there is no doubt who is the bossy one, Niklas was directing a bizarre game of putting something into a bucket giving it to her, taking it back and taking the thing out, giving her the bucket, taking it back, putting the thing back in..... and with each move was shouting an instruction at her - which only she and he seemed to understand!

Jambot - Niklas has obsessions with food, will eat the same thing for days and will suddely go off it and won't touch it, I just have to keep trying new things. He takes the things he doesn't want out of his bowl and puts them on the table, he's kind of got over throwing the food on the floor until he is full then he throws the left overs everywhere if I don't remove the bowl in time. I've given up trying to feed him, he usually starts by trying to eat with a fork or spoon himself but soon switches to eating with fork waving around in one hand and eating with the other hand. That's fine with me though, it means we can all eat together rather than one of us feeding him.

Busy & Umum - Switzerland is a little quieter and more subdued today. I bet you are both smiling a little though ! - I'm sure you know what I mean!

HI To All!

it will be a short one.Ksenia is well now.Scarlet fever is gone.

And the whole nation is celebrating!

Leo-sorry for swiss but we were better.I hope enlkand and ukraine weill move as far as possibble.Good luck to both teams.

and i have a serious question.for second time mummies.I has been in my head since last week and the more i think about it theworse results i get.So the question-how do you share your love and all the feeings equally between yourkids.

See you guys after friday

Take care,big hugs to all of you!!!!!!!

Oh Leo, poor Switzerland Was thinking about you whilst cheering on Ukraine last night V v cute Niklas giving orders to his buddy

Harrison doesn't have any food fads, just gobbles up everything in sight then follows Hannah round like a puppy begging for her food. He has though started putting his spoon and fork in his bowl, handing it all to me and saying 'fished' when he's had enough. How cool is that

He's also big into feeding himself and doesn't do too bad a job I have to say. Cereal and milk is a bit hit and miss but other than that, not bad

Back on track with my diet (had a bit of a lapse for a month or so). I'm now almost 9st 12lbs so only 2lbs to go until my ideal weight - that being how much I weighed before I had Hannah so only 8 years to shift it

Umum, Jambot asked the same question some time back and the resounding response was, you just love them like you do the first. For some, we loved them the second they were born, for others it took longer to bond second time round. But in the end, they just fit into your life and in no time at all, you just can't imagine not having them.

I was really worried about Harrison coming along as I'd had Hannah for 7 years and couldn't imagine what it was going o be like with another. But I can honestly say I love him, love him,, love him with every ounce of me and yet, it hasn't reduced one tiny bit, the love I have for Hannah. Sorry if this sounds a bit sloppy and mushy but I look at both my children and my heart bursts with the love I have for them. Amazing feeling, and for me it's even better second time round as I have none of the worries I had with Hannah about was I doing everything 'right'

Umum - Ukraine are only better at shooting penalties than Switzerland ! Good luck to your football team!

Well done with your diet Busy, that is really impressive!

Busy !

Doing my Race for Life today - think of me at 7.30pm this evening running my guts out and gasping for breath.

Hannah and I have raised £375 for Cancer Research which we're so dead chuffed about. Thx to everyone here who contributed to that.

And Harrison slept in until 7.30 this morning - must have known his mummy needed everything going in her favour today

Good Luck with your RFL today BW, hope that you really enjoy it.

UMum - Took me a while to 'bond' with Ethan, but I felt an instant love with Freya. However, I really believe that those first few weeks and months are soon taken over by your true deep feelings for your children. I love them both equally and intensely, though that doesn't stop me pulling my hair out sometimes over their antics!

Freya fell over yesterday and has grazed her head again, she seems to go from one bump and bruise to the next! A little danger child.

It is Ethan's 5th birthday tomorrow so I am off now to wrap his presents while Freya is napping. Apparently today is national siesta day, so perhaps I should take part in that as well if I get time!

Good luck for tonight Busy!!!

Re: second children. I didn't bond as quickly with my dd2, and I felt a terrible guilt about it. I was overwhelmed by having dd1, and right from day 1 was besotted and absorbed by her every deed. I guess 2nd time, I missed dd2 not being 'a person', compared with my funny, unique 3 year old. But as time has passed of course she has become her own person, and now I am as crazy about her as I am about dd1. I look at them both and my heart could pop with joy.

Hi all. It took a bit of catching up on the thread. It sounds like all are doing well. Busy - I hope the Race for Life went well.

We are fine here. Sylvia is keeping me very busy. She's been eating poorly again and cutting down a lot on breastfeeding

I'll try and ctach up again soon.

Hello everyone, lovely to hear from you Cristina

Well England are out and Ukraine are out so I've given up on the World Cup DH was very glum but thankfully we went to a Family BBQ at Hannah's school straight after the match yesterday so he was able to have lots of beers and commisserate with the other dads. We had a lovely evening sitting out in the warm, drinking wine and beer, eating hog roast and all the children running around having a great time. Harrison was tucked up in bed at home so I didn't even have to worry about him. Very relaxing

Did my Race for Life in the week with Hannah and managed to complete the course in 32 minutes and Hannah did it in 30, so we were both real proud. Managed to raise lots of money for Cancer Research as well.

Harrison has two more molars just cutting through the gum but other than some really foul nappies, he's not been too bothered this time. That's bound to bring the curse of MN crashing down on me

Hope everyone is OK.

Hope you've all had lovely weekends. It's been roasting hot here, but very nice too.

Yesterday we hopped on our bikes (kids on their seats) and rode along a lovely bikes-only cycle route to a local park, for ice-creams in a lovely cafe in the middle of some gardens.

Then today I was doing a 5 mile run with my club in the morning and dp and the girls came and cheered me on. Dd1 was very cute, standing by with water to supply me in the baking heat!

And afterwards we had lunch at a friends house and the kids played beautifully all afternoon whilst we chatted. Bliss.

Great to hear you all have had good weekends. We have had fantastic weather so have spent time swimming in the lake. Today we had a 2nd birhtday party to go to which was really nice.
I've had a tough few days though, Niklas had a really high temperature again for a couple of days (I took thursday off work to look after him) and has white spots all around his mouth (doctor says its a virus, I was worried he had measles). Poor love has been so miserable, couldn't eat or drink anything, has been waking up every hour so he has been sleeping with us and I haven't been able to put him down. I've been grumpy and exhausted as well, but thankfully today he seems better, but still very, very clingy. Dh has also been ill the last 2 days (i guess with the same thing) so has been completely useless !

Hi to all ladies!!!!

Well,thank you all for your words about how much do you love your kids.But as i told before the more i think of a second child the more scary it becomes.I mean now Ksenia for me is a center of a world and this thought that if i have second child i will lose Ksenia's love to me and she will hate me and etc and etc.Oh,there is no meeting with dh in the next few months and i am
alrady scared of having a second child. I think i am paranoid.Anyway,you all said that it is possible so i take your words.Thank you!

Leo-the celebrations didnt last that long and after england's defeat my mood completely got bad!!!

Busy-did not wish you luck before your Race For Life but let me say that i always admire people like you and show them a huge respect.Well done for Hannah and her mummy!!!!Ksenia is doing nearly the same like Harrison with thw nappy.The only difference is that she spends a lot of time out of it and when i put a nappy on her and she is doing nomber 1 she looks down to the ground in hope to see there a puddle and if she cant see it then Ksenia start to look everywhere and at the end she make such a funny face which looks like that she is completely lost in her life.

Pidge-Iris's talk sounds so great.To me she looks like the Indigo Child-a new type of human being.I wanted ksenia to be an Indigo Child but was not meant to be.She is talking but she doesnot want to repeat corectly the words and she ends up with some kind of spell.Maybe she is a witch.

Ksenia is now at the nursery.Today i left her there for the first time for the whole day and first time in my life i dont know what to do.Ksenia is not around and my day just not the same!Though i had my first ever driving lesson in the morning and i loved it.

well i think that would be all for today!!!One more time thank you ladies for your sayings about second time love to kids.It is helping me.i asked you about it coz all women in my family have only one child so i have to ask anybody who saw it and felt it in live!!!!!

Take care!

Leo-poor Nicklas and your second baby-DH.I wish to all of your men to get better soon and to you to keep up with life rythm!!!!!

I also have the same worries over having a second child Ukrainianmum. Know we'll have to start trying seriously in the new year, but at the moment my heart isn't really in it. Am coming round to the idea but still not totally keen.
Lauren has got yet another cold. Third one in a row. Spent the whole night coughing. Hasn't got a bad chest, but think it's the mucus in her throut. Her face was covered in dried snot this morning. Lovely!
Only thing driving me mad with Lauren at the moment is her eating. She's decided she doesn't want to eat anything that resembles meat, potato and veggies. Used to eat these things quite happily but now firmly refuses to even open her mouth. She is crazy about fruit and would live on that if she could. Also refusing to eat her cereal. Will eat a bit of wholewheat toast and a banana, but that's it. This whole eating thing is stressing me out. Have made such an effort up till now to introduce her to a wide range of healthy foods and making sure she has a balanced diet, but it's becoming more and more difficult.
What are yours eating during an average day at the moment and what are you like with treats? I refuse to be paranoid about sugar and 'junk' and don't mind the odd biscuit or crisp, and try to keep them out of sight. Although she's hardly had many crisps, she can already spot a crisp packet at 100 yards!!!
Hope you're all enjoying your hot weather in the UK. Raining here.
Well done on your run Busy.

Sorry to hear about Niklas being poorly again, I hope that he picks up soon.

I sometimes find mealtimes a bit stressful with Freya aswell. She doesn't eat as well as Ethan did at the same age, and I don't know whether she is doing ok or not sometimes. An average day is

1. A small bottle of milk (about 3 ozs I suppose)
2. Breakfast - about half weetabix and half a slice of toast or raisin bread
3. Mid morning snack - maybe a banana or a biscuit or some raisins.
4. Lunch - sometimes Freya refuses to eat atall or else she tends to eat the smallest amount of sandwich and possibly a yoghurt.
5. Dinner - Spag Bol, Tuna Pasta, Sausages, Chicken curry etc etc. Sometimes she'll eat a lot, sometimes she throws it on the floor! Difficult to predict how she'll react
6. 7 ozs of milk before bed

Not sure how 'average' this is. How does it compare to Lauren? Freya can also be incredibly strong willed about wanting to feed herself. Some days she would rather have nothing than allow me to feed her. I am happy for her to try to feed herself, but I feel she does still need some help.

Ethan had a great birthday party yesterday. Luckily I had managed to dissuade him from a football theme ( though I could probably have got loads of decorations very cheap) and he had a Superheroes Fancy Dress party. Very hot for them all to be dressed up in nylon suits, and E's eczema has flared up a bit because of it, but they all had a great time. Entertainer was fab and the Spiderman games Matt and I organised seemed to go down well. Afterwards came home, had tea, put kids to bed and sat down with a large glass of wine - I was shattered! Next year he can have a friend round for tea instead!

England out of World Cup and Murray out of Wimbledon, not too good.

a quick but tired hello ladies
cant stop
shit day
but hellooooo

will catch up later in the week i promise!

Popyscal - Nice to hear from you. Hope you are ok, look forward to hearing from you again soon.

popsycal - hope you're doing ok.

Feeling a bit hot and bothered here. Spent most of the day hiding indoors with the girls. Ventured out to the playground but just had to cower under the trees, as all the slides and swings were too hot to touch! Can't believe that yesterday I was running around in this heat (did a 5 mile run in the morning).

Iris is a right rogue about food. She can sometimes pack it away like she hasn't been fed in a week. But she's got a mind of her own and likes to shout "Ionat" = "I want that" whilst pointing at various food items around the kitchen not currently on offer to her. This evening I made the terrible mistake of letting her glimpse some cheese, as I removed it from the fridge, and that was the end of her veggie couscous supper, she just inhaled pieces of cheese, stopping only to shout "shees" in between mouthfuls!

I think the evening breastfeed is on the way out. Yesterday she refused it completely, and tonight we were down to about 3 minutes. A bit sad. But rather like dd1 - she's too interested in stories and getting goodnight kisses at the end of the day. Dd1 didn't drop the morning feed till she was 2, so I still could have a way to go yet!

Jo - glad that Ethan had a good birthday yesterday! Sorry I forgot to say happy birthday to him!

Yesterday it was really hot here again and I love it! My legs are even starting to go brown ! Niklas is back on good form , but extremely clingy. I thought we were goign to havea problem leaving him at the nursery this morning but he was really excited to see all his friends again!
Yesterday I was so tired that I struggled the whole morning to stay awake, it was one of those days when I couldn't keep my eyes open. I filled up the paddling pool for Niklas and tried to fall asleep in a chair on the patio, but he wouldn't allow that! We went inside and I tried to sleep on the sofa while he played, no chance! He was eventually ready to go to sleep around 3... bliss! He wouldn't go to be last night until almost 10pm though!

Niklas is generally a good eater but I have to hide the treats from him and he can be fickle. If he doesnt' like something it will go on the floor. He also points at things he wants and will say Mi?, Mi?, Mi? (not quite as sophisticated as Iris!). He goes through phases though and I have to keep trying new things with him. I do think we worry too much about what they do and don't eat though. He does have treats, ice cream yesterday and I have a pack of jammy biscuits he loves, but I try to minimise them or cut them out completely if he isn't eating properly. He isn't good with eggs so yesterday I boiled one, chopped it into 8ths and put a small blob of mayonnaise (just to make it more attractive) on his plate. He ate the mayonnaise and asked for more! I ended up mashing mayonnaise and eggs toghether as I'm not sure that a meal of mayonnaise on its own is really a good idea and he ate the whole lot!

Pidge, whatever, you have done really well to get this far with breastfeeding Iris. For me it was a relief to give up when I did so I have a lot of admiration.

Oh, and as for second babies. I think that Niklas and I have such a special relationship and can't imagine how a second child will change it or how Niklas would cope with it but on sunday at the birthday party there was a family with 3 children, it was so lovely to see the children caring for each ohter and playing together. I don't think any of the children were missing out, in fact I could only see that they benefitted from having siblings. I actually felt sorry for Niklas for being a first child. For me its my selfishness (I already feel sick thinking aobut being pregnant) that makes me hesitate!

And finally on the food subject again - how good are your children at chewing their food? If Niklas eats raisins (sp? ), they come out looking like they went in (except a bit bloated). He just doesnot chew his food!

Ooops that was a long one !

LOl at Niklas's raisins. Sylvia's come out the same. As do grapes. She is eating SO little. I really don't know how, but she poos a normal amount. I swear she poos more than she eats. It's a total mystery.

It took us (me) ages and ages to decide whether to have a second. I too couldn't imagine loving any other child as much as I did Dominic. I just didn't think it would be possible. I was wrong, of course.

It's not that Lauren doesn't eat much - she can pack quite a bit in, it's just that she's not eating what I'd like her to eat! She would happily survive on bananas, kiwi fruit, apples and yoghurt, with the odd piece of toast thrown in. Everything else she'll either have a few bites of, or refuse to eat it at all. Looks at it in her bowl and then quite firmly hands me back the bowl with a rather fiesty 'de'! Oh she does like quiche, which is weird as she's never taken to eggs at all. I'm worried about her iron intake as she's hardly eating any meat at all at the moment. What do vegetarians eat to get iron in? Used to add blackstrap molasses to her cereal as that's very high in iron, but now that's been spurned so no chance there.
Giving myself a bit of a make-over at the moment, in preparation for our trip in August. Growing the layers out of my hair, back to my trusty bob. Gone back to blonde highlights as felt my hair colour was too dark and reddish, which made my face look like a tomato! Didn't realise till I saw a pic of myself in a tomato orange top that MIL had given me. Have never worn that colour before, and now I know why. Dreadful.
Have bought a very nice new Lancome foundation and concealer to hide the dark rings under my eyes and even out my pigmentation on my cheeks. They put some on at the shop and I bumped into a friend who asked what I'd been doing as my skin looked so good! So that was money well worth spending.
At least I'll look good from the neck up. What I can do about the rest of me in 5 weeks isn't so positive!!
Lauren has a stinking cold atm. Third one in as many months. Can't wait for summer! She was awake for two hours last night. Not crying, just wide awake chatting to herself. Coudn't figure out why she'd woken until I went into the room and found that the dimmer switch on her light had somehow turned itself on and the room was a bright as day!
Off to watch the soccer.

Jambot, i think a diet of fruit is fine for the time being. Sylvia used to love fruit too but now she's gone off them as well. Your makeover sounds fab. Where are you off to in August? Will you ad a photo with highlights etc to the photobucket?

I'm putting on weight. I don't know why but I have a bigger tummy now than I did last summer. Maybe because I'm reducing breastfeeding? Who knows. I also feel bloated and premenstrual, so maybe that's what it is, periods returning.