March 2005 part 6 - Toddling towards summer!

[leogaela]

And her it is!

Grace is nowhere near being remotely interested in the potty although she seems to be developing some bladder control - her ovenight nappy is often barely damp in the morning but then the nappy we change her into is completely soaked within an hour. She'll also say "puh" and do the nappy sign when she's done a poo, and occasionally just beforehand as well.

Dp reckoned Iris told him she'd done a poo in her nappy one day - but I reckon he was hallucinating! I do say "Is there a poo in there" when changing her and she laughs and says "noooo", but it rarely corresponds to reality.

Haven't read that book Leo. I have only read one fairly neutral book called "Raising Happy Children" and I just felt like it was pretty common-sense and that we were doing just fine following our instincts.

One more day of work for me - tomorrow - then holidays, hurrah! And dp has finished school so he's in charge of packing. Double hurrah. I hate packing.

Lovely to catch up with what all the little ones are up to. Sylvia loves her new buggy too. She keeps trying to sit in it and doesn't understand why she can't.

She's also rediscovered her soft toys, puts them to bed, brings them to me to breastfeed (she brought a shoe to breastfeed as well, so I don't think it's any incipient maternal feeling there).

Sylvia tries to pee standing up, like Dominic. She hates sitting on the potty. She tells me just before/when/just after she's done a poo or a wee but won't sit on the potty for it.

Pidge - well done on the running.

UMum - sorry to hear Ksenia was so poorly.

Leo - thanks for the emails. I haven't heard from the job in Switzerland yet, I know they have the position open till September...

We're going camping on Saturday for one week, then to Romania between 10th August and 4th September.

My PhD is going very slowly. I'll get back to it now, only got on the 'net to check up on some values I need.

I forgot to say that I love the boook on "How to talk...". My other favourite one ATM is Alfie Kohn "Unconditional parenting".

How is everyone doing in this hot weather (apart from the cold weather for Jambot)? Dominic is going to a cricket camp 9am-2pm this week so I collect him from it and then take him and Sylvia straight to the park. So lots of sand in the house at the moment and tired children.

We are struggling with the heat here.
Ethan ran round the park yesterday for a bit, then on the way home he was sick in the car (not nice to clear up). I'm sure it was cos he got overheated, he just can't work out that he needs to take it easy in the heat. We chilled out in the house today, art work and reading etc. Hope it gets a bit fresher soon.
Have managed to get Freya out of her sleeping bag at night. She was not very happy the 1st night I tried it, but I was getting very worried about her overheating in it during the night. She is now sleeping in a vest, and seems a lot cooler.

Any ideas? Freya has a really bad rash across the small of her back just below her nappy line. I'm guessing it is heat rash, but I am not 100% convinced. She is scratching it a lot. I have been trying calomine cream and piriton when it really bothers her. Any other remedies that anyone can suggest?

At the moment Freya really loves dancing, she is a great little boogier! It makes me laugh, esp when she and Ethan put on 'shows' for me. Ethan arranges the show, and Freya just bops around and does all the wrong things at all the wrong times. It's very funny.

at Freya's dancing Jo. Grace also loves to dance and does this really cute thing with her head, sort of twisting it around to the music. She has got very strong opinions though on what she does and doesn't like, and if we are playing one of her CDs in the car, she will either go "uh, uh, uh" in an urgent manner until we change the track (if an unpopular song) or start waving her arms and legs, clapping her hands and bobbing her head if a popular song!.

My two don't seem too bothered by the heat - are sleeping well generally although Grace has started waking between 5 - 5.30am which is a bit of a killer. Went back to sleep in the bed with us this morning (eventually) but I was horrified when we all woke up to see that her hair was soaking and there was a big wet patch on the sheet where her head had been . She was only in a 0.5 tog growbag and nappy so it must have been dh and my combined body heat that caused it. She seemed happy enough though.

Oh - on the subject of music, has anyone else discovered Raffi? He's a Canadian who makes great children's CDs - much more palatable than most of the kids' stuff.

Sorry you're all suffering from the heat. Now just imagine going through the last trimester of your pregnancy in this heat and worse! I'm actually going to try and plan my next pregnancy so that the last months are in winter.
Lauren has finally started to say something vaguely comprehensible. Car, Oh dear, All gone, Go, out.
Busy raining at the moment. Going to have a look at a little playgroup round the corner this morning. If looks good am going to put Lauren in there for a few mornings a week from January. Will still do Mums and Tots with her once a week and she will go to my Mum's another morning. So that will be all my mornings sorted so I can get back to doing some work. It will only be working from home, but it's almost impossible to do it with Lauren there.

It has been a bit cooler here this morning so have been playing football in the garden with Ethan and Freya. And now Freya has a new word, 'GOAL!', accompanied by her arms going up in the air. It's very funny, am now just waiting for her to pull her tshirt up over her face and run round the garden in full celebration style!

They are so sweet when they start playing "properly" aren't they? Sylvia and Dominic were playing hospitals tonight. They were running up and down the corridor with the stuffed toys in the toy buggy which was suposed to be an ambulance, making ambulance noises (I'd hate to be our neighbours), then putting all toys on the bed and attending to them. Sylvia just copied what Dominic did, she has no idea what she's doing, but joins in. I overheard Dominic telling Sylvia "no, you can't touch the patients, you'll give them mad cow dee".

We are off camping for a week tomorrow, so won't be around much. Have a nice week.

hi everyone! Nice to catch up with you all again.
Niklas likes music as well, he dances and 'sings' which is really cute.

Bonym, I agree about the book being a bit too american touchy-feely but I like the principle of respect and responsibility it tries to teach. I'm interested in how it works with dd1.

We are having some problems at the moment , Niklas is going through a hitting phase. If he hits us its annoying but not so bad, but it is really, really upsetting to see him hitting and pushing other children. Every time he hits it we tell him 'X doesn't like to be hit...' or something similar but quite often he will do it again and again and again. He may be in a sandpit with a spade in his hand and I'm worried that he will smack a child in the eye with it or really hurt them. anyone dealt with this before and got any tips on how we should deal with it?

We also have another problem, dh has had some kind of burn-out. He has had stomach problems for a while and we are not sure if its the stomach problems that have added too much stress or if stress has caused the stomach problems. He has lost a lot of weight, is exhausted all the time and worst of all is very intolerant with Niklas ! We had a week holiday last week and stayed at home resting, Niklas went to the nursery. He seems a bit better but still has long way to go. Its a bît of a tough time.

Pregnancy isn't too bad, I'm tired, energyless and sleeping a lot, not looking forward to work next week, but its only a few now weeks before we have 3 weeks holiday ! Hopefully we will all feel better after that!

Hi Leo.
Although I haven't experienced any hitting yet, I think it's quite common at this age. I would give him a sharp NO and either turn my back on him if it's you, or remove him well away from the other child and whatever activity they're busy with.
Sorry DH isn't feeling so well. Is it the stress of work? My stomach is my weak point - first thing to play up if I'm stressed. Maybe he just needs the break. I know it's hard when they're stressed, especially with a toddler around. DH can also get quite intolerant with Lauren if he's got a lot on. Makes me really cross because it's not her fault!
Sure your holiday will do you both lots of good. Glad you aren't feeling too bad, although the tiredness must be hard when running after Niklas.
Am starting to get a bit worried about Busy. She didn't mention any holiday to us and she's been off MN for weeks now, which is very unlike her. Hope all is OK.

Freya had a nasty accident yesterday, she was on the floor in the kitchen and Ethan was sitting on the work surface. He slid down off the work surface and somehow the glass chopping board that he was sitting on slid off aswell and landed right on Freya's foot. She really cried, which is not like her, she is quite tough. Today she has a massive bruise and her foot is quite swollen - she is ok walking without her shoes on, but is not keen on wearing her shoes. I've been putting arnica cream on it so hopefully it will improve soon. Poor thing, I felt really sorry for her and Ethan was crying too cos he thought it was his fault - when in fact it was just an accident. hopefully it will be a bit better tomorrow.

Leo - Sorry to hear DH is feeling poorly, definitely need a holiday.

Also a bit concerned about BW - perhaps she forgot to say she was off on holiday. Not like her to be absent for so long, I notice that her last post here was back on the 10th July.

Poor Freya Jo! you must have had such a fright. Sounds like it could have been worse than it was.
Lauren is getting so frustrated at the moment. If she can't get something right she gets so cross with herself. Will be on our way next week. Taking Lauren round to my folks on Wednesday evening and putting her to bed and that will be the last we see of her for two weeks! Sure she'll be fine but still a bit worried about it. Hope my parents will cope. It can be so tiring looking after them non-stop.

Oh, poor Freya. Is the foot getting better or is it worth getting it x-rayed?

Jambot, I think of all of you maybe you will be the one that finds it hardest to be 2 weeks away from Lauren. I am sure Lauren and your parents will be fine!

DH is feeling much better, he has been written off sick 50% this week and that has taken a weight off him. He'll have relaxing time on his own at home.

Niklas too had an accident, dh accidently sliced through his finger , I didn't say anything (he was feeling bad enough), but I couldn't believe he was cutting with a sharp knife somewhere that Niklas could stick his fingers in the way. It bled a lot and was quite deep, we had nothing better than a plaster to fix it with so we ended up waiting 3 hours in casualty to get a steri-strip! That's something I am going to buy for the first aid box at home!

Poor niklas - the little ones are really starting to get themselves into scrapes now!

Freya's foot is still pretty bruised, but she is wiggling her toes and putting weight on it, so I don't think she needs an x-ray. Hopefully she will be fine soon.

Off to hospital anyway later cos my brother has been invloved in quite a nasty horse riding accident. He has an open fracture to his ankle and had 4 hours of surgery on it yesterday after being air lifted to hospital. Will be seeing him for the first time today ,he is apparently quite high on morphine at the moment though so I am not sure he knows too much of what is going on. Will go again at the weekend when he is a it more with it.

Oh dear - so sorry to hear about all the accidents. Hope your brother is ok Jo, and that Freya's foot gets better soon.

And poor Niklas - I would have been as well Leo. I don't think my dh is as careful around Grace as I am and I'm amazed that we've not had any accidents yet. Sorry to hear that your dh is unwell. Hopefully having the time of work will be just what he needs.

Although Grace doesn't hit, she does have a tendency to be quite rough and grabs hair, faces etc. and I find it totally mortifying when she does it to other children. I do talk to her very sternly and then ignore her if she does it, but it doesn't seem to have done much good up to now. I think that it's just that she just gets a bit over-enthusiastic, as the person she does it most to is her sister - they can get rather boisterous together. We do tell (and show) her to be gentle and she'll then start stroking and saying "ahhh" which is very sweet.

Her speech is all of a sudden coming on very quickly and she seems to be getting new words almost daily (probably has about 25 at the moment). Phoebe spends a lot of time saying "Say * Grace", and Grace does her best to copy even though some of the words would be completely impossible at this stage!

Hope Busy is ok - maybe she just hasn't had time to post for a few weeks. I get weeks like that and then it seems a mammoth task to catch up so leave it a bit longer .

Jo - i hope your brother is OK! That sounds really nasty.

Bonym - that's exactly what Niklas is like. We have been watching him this weekend. My cousin, her husband and dd (2 months younger) have been staying, he hasn't been hitting or biting (ok, once when she drove him mad taking every toy he wanted) but has been running up behind her and pushing her. We think its just to get her attention and also excitement. He loves having her around! still, he is told every time and we have also shown him how to stroke her gently and say aaah! This morning we took him to nursery, when we said goodbye to my cousin and family the 2 little ones couldn't stop kissing each other, it was so lovely!

Well last night was a first for more than a year! We got one of the girls from the nursery to babysit and went out for dinner ! It was really, really nice, all 4 of us really enjoyed it. Although it was a bit stressfull when we left home as cousin's dd took some time to relax with the babysitter IYKWIM!

Thanks for your best wishes for my brother. He is still in hospital at the moment and is still in a lot of pain with his leg. The doctors are pretty pleased with his progress and are hoping to plaster the leg tomorrow (they have not done so up until now cos the leg was really swollen and he also has a large flesh wound that they are wanting to keep an eye on - the plaster will still allow access to this so that it can be dressed and checked for infection). His leg will not be able to bear weight for at least 3 months and it will be at least 6 months before he can do anything physical. I'm guessing it will be sometime after that before he can go back to work since he is a mounted policeman which is obviously pretty physical. He won't be happy if he has to go back to a desk job, even temporarily - he can't sit still for a minute under normal circumstances (having to a moment though cos restricted to bed in hospital!)
Anyway, sorry I am waffling...

We are off on holiday in a couple of days and Freya is keeping us guessing over her favourite toy for bed! She has chosen a different toy every night this week so we are unsure which is her 'favourite' and therefore which gets a trip to Portugal. If we take Tigger, and she wants Tinky Winky when we get there then we are done for! I am unsure how she will settle in a new place, we have not been away since last Sept and she has not slept anywhere except her cot since then. We will be taking her grobag to try and keep her settled. Fingers crossed.

Leo - Very over your night out, it sounds like you had a lovely time

Well we are off tomorrow to Germany and Italy. Lauren is all packed up and ready to go to Granny and Grampy. Already getting teary at the thought of saying goodbye to her and not seeing her for two whole weeks!!
Enjoy your hols Jo. Luckily Lauren's beloved blankie has an exact 'twin' at Granny's house so we don't have a problem with a favourite toy.
Definitely think we've lost Busy somewhere. It's been a month since she posted now. Can't believe she would have gone on holiday for a month and not said a word about it. Quite worrying - hope she's ok. Anyone have an e-mail address for her?
Ok bye! Think of me drinking Chianti under the Tuscan Sun!!

Have a fantastic time Jambot! We will miss you too!

Jo - more sympathy for your brother. It sounds horrible and even worse as he is such an active person.

Well, its going to be even quieter around here now!

Maybe I will try to cat Busy !

Have a fantastic time Jambot, I am even more than I was of Leo's night out!

We too are off tomorrow for a couple of weeks, 'see' you all soon!

I emailed BW before leaving on holiday but no replies yet. I hope all's fine with her & family.

I'm on holiday in Bucharest at the moment. The weather is nice and the kids are having a good time with their cousins. My parents' flkat is pretty busy (4 adults, 4 kids) so we are spending some time away, like an internet cafe at the moment.

Hi Cristina, great to hear from you, its a bit quiet around here at the moment!
I am also wondering where UKraniamum is - is she also on holiday?

Well I had BIG news yesterday. I went to the doctor and had a first scan, it turn out that I am having twins ! I find it hard enough to cope with Niklas, twins as well as him ! THe doctor thinks they are identical !