March 2005 part 6 - Toddling towards summer!

[leogaela]

And her it is!

Happy birthday, Louise. Sorry I haven't been around much and I missed your birthday. I hope you had a nice time.

Busy - welcome back. I think we all felt a bit lost without you. I missed you on here.

Jambot - maybe your DH could do the book reading with Lauren, although even that can turn very lively. I too would think 10 days away would be such a long time.

UMum - tough decision for you leaving Ksenia behind. Wouldn't you be able to visit her meanwhile?

Sylvia started nursery again, 3 mornings a week. She's doing surprisingly well. Settled in nicely already, I am so surprised. She was not ready at all when she went before at 1 but now she is. Yesterday when I picked her up they said she'd been singing a lot.

I am trying to be very disciplined during the days when she's at nursery. She's only there for a few hours so I make myself work on my PhD and try to keep very focused. In fact I was still doing some work on it at this hour but thought I'd been so good I deserve a quick peek on here.

What car seats are you using for your little ones? We need to buy a new one for Sylvia, I was thinking of a Britax Eclipse Si. The other choice ould be a Britax Evolva 123 but it seems so huge, the other one seems a bit higher and snugger.

JoPG - i hope Ethan enjoyed his trip to Pizza Express. Poor little kid, impetigo looks awful. "Show and tell" is such an important event for them, I know Domi gets all excited when it's his turn. In fact I don't think they do it anymore now in Year 2.

Sylvia looks like she's finally putting on some weight. I've had to take a few steps back and on top of all this baby-led weaning nonsense have started feeding her mashed up things again. A bit of a backward step but at least I know how much she eats and she feels heavier when I pick her up. I make all sorts of concoctions for her, today's was mung beans, sausages, onions, peas, mushrooms, milk and sesame seeds all mashed up. It had a horrible green colour but tasted quite nice and she liked it.

Off to bed now. Have a nice weeked.

Happy Birthday for yesterday Jambot. Hope you had a lovely afternoon

Jo, hope Ethan is feeling (and looking) better today and that Freya doesn't catch it. I know when Hannah got foot and mouth last Xmas, I was constantly stripping Harrison looking for signs of it.

Cristina, are you mad ..... working at 3am That's dedication for you. So glad to hear that Sylvia has settled at nursery. Why are you back to mashing her food (think I must have missed that whilst I was away) Has her weight become a real worry for you?

I've been away for a few days in London. I went to an awards ceremony at The Millennium Hotel in Mayfair - all very posh as it was a black tie event. I drank three glasses of wine and two glasses of champagne (so a fair bit by my standards but not madly excessive I don't think) and I've spent two days recovering from the most hellish of hangovers !!! Never again will alcohol pass my lips

Right, off to do breakfast - I love not having to rush everything at the weekends as we don't have to get out of the house for school and work. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

christina we have the first class si and highliner for sale. both in great condition, but i sold my small car, so dont need the extra seats now.

Happy Birthday Jambot, hope you had a lvely day and got really spoilt.

Well, Ethan's impetigo is clearing up, but unfortunately it seems as if he is mildly allergic to the antibiotics he was prescribed. Had to take him to the doctor's again last night at the end of surgery (7pm - just when Freya wanted to go to bed) and see the doctor again. He agreed to give him some different antibiotics, so hopefully he should get a bit better again today. What with DH in NY this week (due back today, hurrah!) I really did not need the extra hassle! His face is still puffy today, but it should be better soon.
Freya is still showing no signs of it - - fingers crossed.

CtheA - Glad to hear that Sylvia is enjoying nursery. You might find her eating is a bit better there too, a change of scenery and a laid back approach (as there often is in nurseries) might help.

Right, off to spary tea tree oil everywhere again in my attempt to stop anyone else catching impetigo!

Drat - think I missed your birthday yesterday Jambot. Hope you had a fabulous day.

JoPG - poor you - I am hopeless if dp is even away for one evening, let alone a long break. Hope the tea tree oil works a treat.

Hope you had a lovely birthday Jambot!

Umum - I'm so sorry that you've had to make the decision to leave Ksenia behind for a while , it breaks my heart thinking about it. Is there really no alternative?
I did ask a local farm that has goats for some goat fat but no luck. they only keep goats for milk here. Its great though, I love the old grandmother remedies, would prefer to give it a go rather than pumping him full of medication. However, despite the doctor insisting that we carry on giving him ventalin we didn't, we rub a Vicks type of cream on his chest every night, keep him outdoors as much as possible and he drink rice milk rather than cow milk. his chest and cough have been much, much better and cleared up totally while we were on holiday. It got instantly worse again the moment he started back at nursery, we want to get his outstanding vaccinations done but the doctor wouldn't do it last week because he was wheezy again. She has given us 2 oral medications which we are using to clear him up enough to have the injections. Once he has had them done i think we will live with his slight wheeze rather than give him more medication.

Christina - we've got the Romer King something car seat. It had the best safety reviews for car seats in Switzerland.

LOL at your hangover Buzzy! A few years ago I would be thinking - what a lightweight - but these days even thinking about drinking that much gives me a headache!

Jopg - I hope you get some relaxation time today when your dh gets home, sounds as if you deserve it!

I wonder what happened to AndyJ - I hope we didn't scare her off!

Thanks for the birthday wishes all. Had a great day. Woke up to discover a kitchen full of flowers and my present waiting for me! Was very impressed with DH as usually it's a mad rush on the day.
Went to the in-laws for dinner last night and left Lauren there, so only woke up at 9am. What bliss. Picked her up this afternoon and then it was straight on to a birthday party, where she proceeded to stuff her face for 2 hours. Surprised she hasn't got a tummy ache. She now weighs over 12kgs and feels so heavy, especially when comparing her to a six month old I picked up this afternoon. Can't believe Lauren was ever that light!

We use the Chico Key 1 car seat for Lauren. It's very comfy and you can adjust the height of the straps without taking them out of the seat.

Ukrainianmum - what a sad thought. I can't imagine being away for that long. Is there any other way?

On the car seat front - we have always followed the Which best buy recommendations. They were critical of the safety standards of some brands, particularly Mamas and Papas. Having said that I can't actually remember what we've got!!

We've had Cleo and Iris's cousins round all day - they are similar ages, so it's been gorgeous watching them play.

Have put some new pics of my lovely big girl on the bucket.

Lovely photos of Lauren, she looks so 'grown up'.

jambot - she's gorgeous! And she looks so grown up.

Tx. Isn't it amazing how they suddenly start looking like little people, and not babies anymore?

Ethan still not back at school today. His reaction to the antibiotics has still not worn off, and he is itchy all over and very sleepy. Have got new antihistamine from doctor's today (am feeling like I live there at the moment!) which seems to be working a bit better. Hopefully he will go back to school tomorrow, he really wants to see his friends.
touch wood, Freya seems to have escaped the impetigo.

Managed to escape on Sat for a couple of hours to play netball once DH got home. Was nice to get out of our sickly house for a while!
He also brought me back some perfume from Tiffany. I'm normally pretty fussy about perfume (has he not seen all the other bottles gathering dust on the windowsill?!) - but this one is lovely.

E and F currently watching a Maisy DVD that I bought for Freya. She loves Maisy and walks round with her Maisy books all the time, she is squealing at the tv at the moment - v cute.

JoPG - poor Ethan. Hope he perks up soon. And how cute about Freya and Maisy.

Iris has an obsession with "Each Peach, Pear Plum" at the moment and demands it every night. I think she likes the detail in the pictures and spends ages spotting things on every page.

She and Cleo are full of colds at the moment, and have done their usual trick of passing them on to me and dp! Oh the joys of autumn and winter. Am off to bed to get super long sleep before facing work tomorrow.

OK, I haven't posted for a couple of days because I don't want to talk photos , I have now almost sorted out the pile of printed photos I have so will soon be going through the next lot on the PC which means that i will definitely put some new ones up!

Its amazing going through the old photos, I don't think i realised how cute Niklas was at the time, but looking at the photos makes me melt !

At the moment he is incredibly cute, we had a wonderful day together yesterday. It seems that over our holiday he really turned a corner, we have no more grizzling and whining (sp) from him, he isn't always crawling up my legs for me to carry him and can play quite happily by himself for a little while. He is happy, laughing and chatting all the time. And i feel relaxed and patient with him, I used to get quite stressed with him at times but can't even remember why now ! At the moment he is a dream child !

Jo, sorry to hear that Ethan still isn't feeling well. I hope he makes it back to school today.

Seems that everyone's dh's are being wonderful at the moment - Jambot's flowers, Jo's perfume! Mine is absolutely useless at presents, in fact i am not sure he has EVER brought me a present , but actually I don't hold it against him as he is great in other ways and i don't miss the presents, although, a little gift occassionally would be nice!

Oh, and while you are talking about books, I'm going to do an order from Amazon (I'm so bored of reading Niklas the same books), it would be great if you could all give me some ideas of what is worth getting.

What is the 'Each peach, pear, plum' one Pidge?

Leo - "Each, peach pear plum" is an Alan Ahlberg. In the same vein Iris loves his Peepo book, and also the "Baby Catalogue", particularly the "Accidents" page which shows babies up to all sorts of mischief!

I really identify with what you said about Niklas turning a corner. I feel absolutely the same with Iris over the holidays. She was pretty hard work for the first year, and now is an absolute joy. I keep exclaiming to dp "Isn't she gorgeous" and he looks a bit puzzled, as if to say - wasn't she always! But I really feel like I'm smitten with her now and she is such fun to be with. She was giving a running commentary on our breakfast making efforts this morning - a constant stream of "I want nana, me toast, danoo (=Daniel) and me toast, danoo, nana, me" etc till dp just laughed and said to her "Do you ever stop talking" and she grinned at him.

i updated serenas pictures on tyhe photobucket.

Leo - We have a whole library of books, but Freya still picks up the same ones, so I still get bored reading the same old ones.
Some of our favourites are the Buster books, eg 'Buster's Day' by Rod Campbell. Both Ethan and Freya have enjoyed them.
Also, Niklas might well like some Thomas the Tank Engine books, I think that most little boys enjoy them.
Finally, our other favourites are the 'That's not my ...' range. Freya really enjoys the repetition of 'That's not my Teddy, it's paws are too sticky', 'That's not my teddy, it's fur is too shaggy' etc, until you get to 'That's my Teddy, it is so cuddly'. There are a whole load of them to choose from, and are available from Amazon.
HTH - and happy reading!

Ethan is now back at school and feeling much better. he is still taking antihistamine for his allergic reaction to the antibiotics, but other than that he seems ok, if a little more tired than usual.

misdee - she is gorgeous!!

JoPG - you mentioning Buster reminded me that Iris developed an obsession with "Oh dear" where Buster goes looking for eggs on his granny's farm. What with that and her "Dear Zoo" phase, she nearly drove me mad with all her animal noises!

Thanks for the tips on the books, Jo your ideas came too late but I'l keep them in mind for next time - Thomas tank engine is a good idea, we have one but its a bit old for him and he has 'that's not my truck' which was a favourite for ages. I've ordered a coupld of the Alan Ahlberg books! The rest of my order was filled up with books about twins!!!!

Oh, and I've just added some photos to the photbucket as well!!!!!! Sadly dh has just told me that he managed to lose all our holiday photos , we downloaded them on holiday and they seem to have just disappeared.

I'm really sorry to hear about your photos Leo. We lost loads when we were burgled (camera stolen and pcitures had not been downloaded) and I know how upsetting and annoying it is.

Hello.

I have to be honest with you ladies.I cannot come to England by visa.I applied a year ago here in ukraine.They refused and i cannot even appeal against their desicion.They are doing this coz they want my husband to come back here.So,now i have to come illegally.It cost so much money and if i want ksenia to come with with me it will cost more around ten tousands and if something go wrong we will spend long months in prison.So that is why i am going alone.My dh and the MP of the towmn where Nickolay lives are bombing The Home office in the matter to issue him an indefinete leave to remainbut still nothing yet.All this "love via letters" can take a long time.And Nick is asking me to come to help and support him and plus long time alone me and him...You understand me.

Oh,Leo so sorry for your lost fotos.It happened to me in January.I was so smart to put a camera on the box where the speakers from home cinema were kept and forfot about it for 5 days and all the fotots were gone.It was Ksenia 1st Xmas and new year it was 3 months of her life.And plus i riuned the camera.We had to buy a new one.

Girls,thank you all for warm thoughts and support.It means a lot to me.

Hello everyone. I've been away most of the week in Coventry at the dullest works conference ever. Anyone who thinks working mothers have an easier life than SAHM's haven't met the people I have to work with

Leo, Niklas is sooooooo lovely and so blonde as well. He looked like he was really enjoying his corn on the cob so I gave Harrison some (never had it before) and he wolfed it down. What a result. We love 'Each Peach' as well and there's another book of his Hannah used to have but I can't remember the title (so fat lot of good that piece of information was).

Jo, hope Ethan's on the mend.

UMum, I have to be honest and say that I found reading your last post very difficult. There is terrible publicity here in the UK about the effects of illegal immigration, particularly on our health care system which wasn't too great to start with. I also can't imagine leaving Hannah and Harrison behind for such a long time for any reason. However, it isn't for me to judge as I have no idea of your circumstances so I'll simply wish you a safe journey and I hope your family comes together again in the future

Right, off to do ironing whilst Harri's sleeping. Could do with a nap myself as he's taken to waking the past week at about 6.30am (don't shout at the screen all of you who normally start your days that early). The only nice thing about being away this week was being able to lie-in and have breakfast in peace.

UMum - that's a very risky route you are planning on for getting to the UK. Are you sure it's really worth it? Why can't your DH go back to the Ukraine? No-one is forcing him to stay here, I'm sure. I'm certain i don't understand all the details of this, but it's very risky and might delay the time before you see Ksenia again. I imagine you didn't take the decision lightly. I travelled to another country once without a visa, from Belgium to France, just a quick, 24 hour jaunt to Paris, but I was young and free at the time. Isn't the Ukraine in the Eu or joiing the EU in January? It might be worth waiting till then and doing it legally. Sorry if I sound preachy.