FEB 2010 Proper threenagers now!!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Come on in, Chicas!

Dive into the bubbly and home-baking and take advantage of our deluxe creche....

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

scones Sorry you didn't get the job. I can't bullshit and I won't.

IC can you get to the GP or ask HV for advice? Has he been to the dentist yet? DD1 has undetected tongue tie and we got it checked by a SALT when she was 6 who advise to leave it as it is but I would guess your DS is too small for this? Unless they can check babbling.

My bump was small but I was apparently seeping blood through my pores as I have a patch of "purple heads" on the point of impact .

Local skills are very very basic, but I am debating if it is worth doing anyway just to get something on my CV, like web design?

[JewelFairies]

Priceless parenting moment last night that brought tears to my eyes (admittedly doesn't take much to make me blub). dd1 let her sister wobble her first wobbly tooth and they beamed at each other.
Can someone please explain the tooth fairy to me? Nothing like that where I come from!

Week has gone well but getting up early and leaving the house at 6.45 is taking its toll. Yesterday I walked out of the house in slippers . I could try going to bed earlier I guess.

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

In france we have a "little mouse" petite souris which comes and replaces the tooth with a coin. We did the same with DD1 with a fairy because everybody else has a fairy. Tooth (or note, see later) under the pillow before bed, coin in the morning.
DD1's 1st teeth was swallowed and was a drama! So we left a note instead. Since we were at friends she had a little box that my friends gave to her and a danish coin.
50 p or 1 pound should do. DD1 was just as happy with anything she won't be able to spend the danish coin or the euros she has had for a very long time and doesn't really care.

[JewelFairies]

Dh told me last night he got 2p from the tooth fairy! I think dd1 would be happy with the same- she has no concept of money yet - but I think I can stretch to a pound (in case she tells her teacher and friends she got 2p!)

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

But he could buy something with 2p in his time! 10 p is the min. ie pack of haribo but since I didn't want DD1 buying sweet I increased to magazine price, 1 pound in romania! Because of her elephant memory we are stuck with that.

[JewelFairies]

Dd2 is bonkers this morning. Hopefully only tiredness from three long days in her nursery class with lots of new children. I made the mistake yesterday of asking if she'd played with her best friend and she howled because the girl with the difficult name has gone into Reception. Oops, because the girl is tiny I had assumed she wasn't four yet.
Roll on next week when dd2 will do five days and I will be away at a conference for three days. Oh dear, I feel a bit sorry for dh having to cope on his own.

[stoofadoof]

and confirmation that the tooth fairy is fairly generous in this house and leaves £1 coin for each tooth? (aside from the first one, where the tooth fairy wasn't at all organised or sorted and had to leave a £2 coin aaargh) I've just had a random (as in unorganised and last minute) week on leave?. it's been ace, doing the school run, tidying and cleaning, decorating and cooking tea? I know the novelty would wear off, but I know from my experience doing a year of SAHM whilst in NZ I could deffo cope with it for a year or two? ho hum I reckon if I had six months without having to go to work I could get the house and garden sorted! :-D I guess the grass is always greener!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Arf at the disorganised tooth fairy, stoof..!!

Well, for us first-timers, it's coming up to primary school choosing time. Mums of older ones - any tips??!

[JewelFairies]

IC First thing to remember is that there is no choice! You did the right thing in considering schools when you bought your house, so in your case I'd put down the closest and nicest as your preferences and then hope for the best...

[ScienceRocks]

I agree with JF. Also:

Read the primary schools brochure done by your local authority. Copies will be available from schools and usually online. It will list all the schools in the borough and give information on how many people applied over the ,set few years and the maximum distance away from the school that they took someone.

Go and have a look round your nearest few schools to get a feel for what they are like.

Ask questions, particularly about wraparound care provision if you are going to need it due to work, and local holiday playschemes.

Ask if there are any bulge classes planned. This will again be a boom year and in densely populated areas, bulge classes are put on to accommodate the surplus. These are usually planned a few years in advance (I found out that my local, tiny, difficult to get into church school was down to take one the year I was applying for dd1 and it vastly increased our chance of getting a place), though schools may not be forthcoming about the details.

Read ofsted reports, but take them with a pinch of salt.

If you need to do a supplementary form, make sure you do!

Make sure you are within last year's catchment for at least one school you apply for. Failing to do so gives the local authority the opportunity to place you anywhere in the borough.

As the above implies, in my area it is a real scrum for places.

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Brilliant advice, thanks! :-)
Luckily, we have two good'uns nearby, and we fall in both catchments, by the look of it....we shall see!!

[ScienceRocks]

I should add that I only got wind of the bulge class at dd1's school because my journalist's nose sniffed it out of LEA board papers (all in the public domain, so not dodgy, but not entirely transparent either). I appreciate that this makes me sound a little unhinged, but the school situation round here is quite tricky because it is such a densely populated area with new houses and flats being built all the time and a complete lack of thought about the supporting infrastructure. I also became an expert in the admissions process with all its rounds of offers and what was considered fair grounds for an appeal, because I was so convinced we would have a problem. We didn't but I was able to help several friends who did.

So, in short, if there is any chance that you might encounter a problem, read and inwardly digest the admissions process so you know what to do to maximise your chance of getting one of your top choices. And don't try and play the system, it never works!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

You are a font of wisdom, SR!

[ScienceRocks]

I've already submitted my application!

[JewelFairies]

On my way to a conference and found it hard to say goodbye to the girls who I won't see until Friday night. Sigh. Was also up half the night with dd2 who has a heavy cold

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

Why, why, WHY? Why dad can't poo standing up? why? why? why? Why girls can't pee standing up? why?

JF They will be fine and spoiled by your DH! and you will be able to sleep!

[ClimbingPenguin]

Ah, but not the first night unless you get drunk like I did. I tend to sleep badly when travelling away now.

Well we have moved house, been ill, travelled for work and gone to a wedding and a christening in the couple of weeks. We go on holiday on Saturday.

[JewelFairies]

CP waving at you from the Lebanese restaurant in town...

[ClimbingPenguin]

Oh I love Lebanese . My appetite has returned so off to raid our empty cupboards

[SurvivalOfTheUnfittest]

Waving.

CP that sounds manic. I had spotted your absence but, having had tooth drama, failed to write it on here or FB.

IC make sure that you are not only in the catchment, but within the distance that the school took children from last year. We have a village school so it's a no brainier for me but I know that point catches a lot of folks out. If both may be full, make sure you find a slightly less popular third choice that you're more likely to get so that you have a fall back position.

JF hope the time away has gone well and dh hasn't just called in his mother!

Have you all spotted the Christmas bargain threads on MN? I've been getting quite a lot of stuff as I think Christmassy shops may overwhelm me.

[JewelFairies]

Feeling really rubbish at the moment and then embarrassed to be so ungrateful of what I've got. Having been to a conference on ageing probably doesn't help. The thought of potentially living another 50 years (most of my relatives either side lived to their 90s) and having to work maybe another 30 years fills me with dread. If it wasn't for my girls I'm not sure I'd want to carry on carrying on.

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

Oh JF .
We can go on chatting till our late 90s together (I have almost centenarians on both side of my family). I have never ever thought our generation would retire but always been met with

[JewelFairies]

Mous It's a deal. We can snigger and tut tut about the youth of 'today' and remember how good things were in 2013

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

or get purple hair and do pranks on unsuspecting youthling!

[JewelFairies]

Sounds good to me .

We just had some unexpected drama with dd1 suddenly shouting for help from upstairs. Dh and I rushed upstairs fearing the worst. Dd1 has lost her first tooth and was somewhat alarmed about the small amount of blood. Must remember the tooth fairy...