December 2012: the little monsters continue to surprise us.

[MaMaPo]

I for one have a very surprising baby.

That's annoying WL you can get spare covers for the maxi cosi's.

I've had a productive morning. I've hoovered throughout, made a lentil and sweet potato shepherds pie for dinner (with spare to freeze for ds) and only shouted at dd twice

Right I've signed up to the Harrods thingy so I can book tickets as of the 10th September. I love Christmas!

2blessed mamas and papas do the nicest personalised stockings and sacks and baby's first Christmas bits

Lentil and sweet potato shepherds pie sounds lovely spotty- do you have a recipe or a link to one you use?

WL have you read that PIL thread that someone on here (sorry) shared the link for? Oh my good god. Will make yours look like angels.. V annoying about the car seat though.

Yes it's this one

I didn't add the water and still needed to cook it for half an hour, that was fine though as I want to try to cook out some of the alcohol as ds will be eating it smells lovely

I tried sitting T in front of the washing machine after tales of an hours peace ... She was frightened of it!

J's scared of the Hoover WL probably cos he's not used to it

Just been into work to sort my hours out. They've offered me 4 days, 2 of them from home. That's what I wanted. My mums in cloud cuckoo land though, reckons I don't need a childminder on my wfh days as I can just work round J. Had to explain that I can't as have to be available for client calls etc.

Oh no WL!

WillYou good news about flexi hours. You will definitely need childcare! Could go with a mothers help instead? Ds loves the Hoover and follows it round (we have a Henry)

willyou I think it a common misconception that you can have dc at home while you work. I know people that have tried it although personally I wouldn't.

That's great that they've given you the hours that you wanted.

I just completely lost it with DD I feel awful. She just weed all on my fabric sofa and on the floor. She knows better and she keeps doing it. I'm so angry, I know I should have ignored it and just cleaned it up but I'm so fed up of cleaning wee and washing things because she won't use the fucking loo. She only went to the toilet an hour ago and I've been giving her loads of praise again recently to try and encourage her.

Thanks Spotty and WL, yep it may work for some but the nature of my work (mainly checking clinical trial protocols for accuracy, compliance and typographical errors) means that I'd have to concentrate much harder than I could with a marauding 1 year old around and as I say I'd have to take client calls too. I think she was thinking of it as freelancing so I could do the work when Jamie was in bed but obviously it doesn't work that way when you're contracted 9-5.

Ds just ate his whole bowl of shepherd pie and then all of dd's (that she wouldn't even try ) it's really yum though I highly recommend it

Thank you Spotty I will try it at the weekend.. Did you use low salt stock cubes etc and unsalted butter or is it ok not to swap? I never bloody know...

Willyou I can't even imagine reading Now magazine with ds around never mind a protocol!! Great you got the hours you wanted

I use normal but I'm pretty slack with ds. If it had been dd I would have used baby ones

There's some grade a farting about going on this bedtime! J's been knackered since 5:30 but isn't insisting on crawling around the bed a pudding his bottle! Pass the strait jacket!

spotty its easy to know you should be calm but another thing actually being calm! Could you keep a potty in the lounge for emergencies?
maryland I was looking at low salt stock cubes but they had more salt than the stuff I normally use (kalo bullion)!!
I'm a lot more relaxed with T than I was with dd1, I have stuff in the freezer that has no salt so I figure if she has the same as us a couple of times a week then freezer stuff it makes life much easier and broadens her meal range. One of her faves is a delia veggie shepherds pie with beans, lentils and veg. The big 2 are quite fussy and they like it too so it's fab all round!

Good news on hours willyou but agree with you re working from home. I get away with it because architecture is very project based plus as lead consultant I tend to be the one phoning people so can time it around naps etc. and yet I still have DM to look after O Wednesday aft and Thursdays..

WL it's not a case of not making it she just stands there and wees, she's done it in the doorway of her bedroom which is five steps from the bathroom, on the bottom of the stairs, in the garden... but only ever at home. I think it's just a reaction to DS I need to make more of an effort with her

Great news on your hours willyou.

Spotty I can totally understand where you are coming from. Dd potty trained just before 2 but then about a year after she would keep having silly accidents, it's so much harder to be calm when you KNOW they can do it!

We have had a nice afternoon at mils while dh and fil went to watch the cricket. Both now asleep so I'm eating my own body weight in crisps!

I've got baby stock cubes from boots, hope they really do have less salt .

If anyone's got a spare minute, would you mind having a look atwww.change.org/en-GB/petitions/manchester-aquatics-centre-review-your-policies-and-staff-training-on-breastfeeding this petition? I think it's truly shocking how bf mums are still treated sometimes.

Thanks .

Sorry -tried to do a link from the word "this", but failed spectacularly hence the rather random sentence! Link should still work though.

Great news about your hours Willyou but agree with everyone else that you'll need childcare - I'm continually amazed by how little I can actually get done despite being at home with small people charging about.

It's so hard to stay calm isn't it Spotty? To be fair, we were pretty lucky with DS1 but he did go through a delightful phase of waiting until he was in the bath to do a wee . That's now passed, but his current thing is being stubborn about wiping his bottom - apparently I'm "just being lazy mummy" if I ask him to try himself. I'm also lazy for asking him to flush the toilet or indeed do the puzzles in his comic! I fear for my future DIL .

I use Heinz baby stock cubes 2blessed. I must admit as DS1 got older I started using the Knorr reduced salt rather than specific baby ones though - not sure how much better they are.

Great news Willyou

H is co-sleeping with me all night and is stripped of all her clothes, shes hot and clammy and has just screamed for solidly for over half an hour. She is never like that so i'm wondering is she coming down with something.

I'm abit tonight as my mum has showed up with her PJ's. I wouldn't mind so much but she stayed on sunday and tonight is my last night alone with H as my dad is back tomorrow. It just feels like my quality time has been taken away

All done Ispy.

Hope H is not poorly hales.

Wide awake here even though everyone else is asleep. Dd woke me up but now I can't get back to sleep, so annoying.

I'm wide awake and R hasnt woken up yet. He went to bed at 9.30...

Hope DD isnt coming down with anything hales.

Will definitely sign that ispy. That makes me so mad. I would have to trot out the "do you fancy eating your lunch in the toilet" line.

R woke for a quick feed and went back down straight away about 15 minutes ago - whooo!