Dec 2011: The one where they sit on potatoes. And turn TWO!

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

New fred! Roll up roll up, potty adventures and birthdays galore!

Yes she is living upstairs and eating with us. Or at least, so I thought until I realised how little we eat in common! I will ask about haggis My whole meal plan for the week is kind of in question now:
curried chickpeas and kale with rice
cumin beef with peppers, cabbage with garlic and ginger, fried rice
black beans and chorizo with corn bread
peppers stuffed with quinoa, feta and olives
beef stew
I guess she'll just have to eat around what she doesn't like...she says she wants to lose weight anyway but I wonder how she will do it with the stuff she will eat.

I suspect the secret to "how I do it" is that I'm not - I'm not paying DS1 enough attention so he is being extremely clingy and wailing "I want to see MUM-my" every time he is removed from the study when I'm trying to work which breaks my heart, DH has been hiding in the kitchen playing the banjo most evenings and looked very eager to go back to work today after half term, and my business partners, while outwardly understanding, are probably a bit annoyed with my slow responses to emails and taking ages to get things done.

Not to mention the house being a tip and being totally behind on all paperwork, even important stuff like updating wills to include DS2. We need to get an appointment with a solicitor through Will Aid in November since it's cheap and for charity. If you all haven't got up to date wills you should definitely all do this!! www.willaid.org.uk/ tells you everything you need to know and it's a one-off donation to charity.

We saved money for a few years to pay for a year's worth of childcare if I decided to try and do a start-up - if I was trying to look after DS1 as well I wouldn't be able to do it. I can just about deal with a newborn and work from home - breastfeeding while on conference calls to keep him quiet, or putting him in the moby wrap so I can type. My mother is coming to Barcelona with me and DS2 for the next business trip - that's in early Nov. Thank god we're getting along better now or I would really be stuffed.

It's really difficult that DS2 won't lie flat without groaning and grunting and generally making straining noises and going beet red. Then when I try and wind him he bobs and roots and wants more milk - then vomits everywhere - then more winding - then more rooting... I have no idea why that is and I find it so difficult to settle him at night I must admit tears have been shed. Last couple of nights DH and I have taken turns to doze with DS2 held upright while the other sleeps.

I must sort out a will i dont have one at all let alone a guardianship plan for DS should something happen to us. I will look at the link pronto!!

A meal plan? A meal plan?
hee hee!
My meal plan involved a trip to waitrose at lunch time today - but I found that i've left my purse at home. I scraped together £4 from my desk drawer and the emergency £2 in the car and so got some waitrose sushi for lunch. :)
My meal plan tonight will involve either a takeaway, or something out of the freezer.
In better news, DH did OK in his job interview on Friday - so we're hoping he gets offered the job today (i am led to understand from the interviewers that, bar any negative feedback from the powers that be, he'll be offered the job today. and my boss - who is the ultimate power-that-be - sees no problem or potential conflict of interest.)
Also on Friday, DH sold his house. Hurrah! Hopefully this sale will go the full distance, this time. And we won't have to shell out for a second mortgage for too much longer! OUCH!
I have not yet received any emails from the national lottery about my impending multi-millionaire status, but it must just be stuck in postini. these things come in threes, right?
This wait to see if I'm pg is rather boring, also.

BTW - Xiao - I wasn't meaning to be rude. I read that back, and it sounds a bit - I didn't mean it to! I am very impressed with your organisation. And jealous.
I would like to be organised one day.
and have a will.
and life insurance.
and not have drawers and drawers full of unattended paperwork.
...Just actually using the coupons and cash-back vouchers that Tesco sends me within the allotted timeframes would be a start... !

Oi fingers crossed for dh!! when can u test?

We try to meal plan but fallen into a rut of the same meals week in week out I can't cool to save my life so hard to influence. Must try cooking more at Weekends!!

Meal plan? Ahahahahahaha.....

xiao, can your nanny do some of the cooking? If not I suggest carbifying some dishes and seperate out the things you think she won't eat so there's always something..
Eg chicken fried rice with peas/sweetcorn and a side salad
Mince keema peas curry with rice and paratha and mango chutney
Chicken breast goujons with oven oliveoil roasted vegetables
Cheese and mustard Mashed potato with sausages, peas and gravy
Pesto pasta with stirfried onions, leek, brocolli and peppers
Roast chicken with pan-fried polenta and coleslaw
Winter veg soup with crusty bread and butter
And of course haggis with peas, sweetcorn and oven chips!

(The laughing was my total lack of any meal plans. Ever. I am rubbish at meal planning beyond opening the fridge and grabbing what's there to make a meal. Occasionally I'll shop and think ooh, xxxx would be nice, so I buy xxx.... Other than that I just have a ridiculously full storecupboard and make what springs to mind....)

Aethel can u come and cook for me? I shall be taking your meal ideas home to dh!! Mmm carbs!!

Ooh brilliant ideas aethel - thanks!!

Oi couldnt see what you thought was rude about your post and glad things are looking up for DH - pompoms for his interview!! I love meal planning though I do get seduced by a new exciting recipe - must stop reading food blogs...

DH doesn't think this nanny will last the full 6 weeks - she is having difficulty with her knee, GP says nothing wrong but she is wincing and doesn't want to go out with DS anywhere because it hurts her. She is also very overweight and climbing four floors to her room here with us which can't be helping her knee either and means I feel nervous her taking DS out as she can't move very fast - what if he runs off/into the road...so we might need to be looking for plan D!
Plan A nanny went on mat leave in July
Plan B au pair - brilliant but in Australia till end Nov
Plan C nanny - can't really cope with the stairs and a v active toddler
Plan D might have to be to beg my mum to stay for the three weeks after the Barcelona trip but I would be in for such a blizzard of "told you so's" and huffing I don't think I could take it.

Xiao good luck with the nanny.

Aethel loving the menu. Might use some of them here.

Oi pom poms for MrOi and the new job.

Really proud of Darcie tonight, no kicking or screaming but thru anxiety driven tears she had her flu jab.

I on the other hand have been diagnosed with OCD and high anxiety. My brain wants to explode when my routine/rituals get knocked out of sync and I can't deal with lots of noise. Even when DH tries to help me, my brain says it's in the wrong way and I end up shouting at him. So he's put me on Prozac which should help the above. We will see.

Am assuming that there is a better way to deal with a whingeing toddler ans screaming newborn than to scream back at them whilst trying to mash potatoes?

Oh well, will do better tomorrow.

As you say Kat tomorrow's another day. I have been reduced to similar behaviour on many an occasion!

I think if the potatoes got mashed, then you're doing everything right. ;)
Our boiler has decided to stop working.
We have no other source of heating in this monster house.
Brrrrr!

Dunno Kat, I had the full on guilt for trying to cover up DS's screams with my hand then dumping him in the playpen for ten minutes as he wailed, as it was a very early start after a seven hour return journey....

Can't believe we're on page 2 of this thread already

My Mum and I have this argument over meal planning, I do a week's plan and buy for it, she just gets whatever. Neither of us can understand how the other one lives and those who don't are just wrong, wrong I tells you!

It will be interesting to see how the Prozac works Queenie, don't they take about six weeks to kick in? But hope it helps, and if it doesn't you can always try other, similar meds at a range of doses.

Glad you're still hanging on in there Xiao, but sorry your nanny sounds a bit duff...you need to be able to fully trust their care so that you can relax to concentrate on DS2 and the work....but can imagine why you wouldn't want your Mum being ruinous to your mental health huffing.

Good luck for your DH too Oi, hope some of my DP's luck rubs off on the thread. It's great about the house for you and for Chip; and so jealous of your short chain. We're getting there, bits from the survey being sorted, so we should be in a position to get our contracts ready in a couple of weeks- it's just how the next two in the chain are doing...

Couldn't get into work today, so had to go to one of the other sites- actually quite peaceful not being in the office !

Oi, hope all went well for MrOi!
Our joint life insurance is £17p/m so well worth it, and it took about 30mins to do online.

Queenie, glad you've got your diagnosis & hope the prozac helps. Well done to your DD1 for not letting the flu jab get to her!

Kat, as I found out last weekend, Tesco Finest Mashed Potatoes are lovely & you can't tell they're not homemashed!
I've magically managed to get cakes in the oven, do a work out & have a bath with them both sleeping through all of it! DS2 slept from 8-5 last night, so expecting a nightmare tonight.

Xiao, would your Nanny eat some of those fresh filled pastas the supermarkets do? It's our go-to quick meal, they do meat versions.
I know a vegetarian who eats nowt but pasta or pizza covered in assorted cheeses & cakes, weighs 30stone but berates me for my unhealthy diet of things wot include meat.

Sitting in my hotel room in Germany trying to get on with lecture writing but sooooo not in the mood! Bawled leaving minim yesterday

Oh dear mopsy I promise the week will fly by and you'll be home before you know it.

Boba have you had a NC? My brain is running on Slow today so apologies!

kat fingers crossed for a better day. We all have them. DS grabbed on to the cord on the front of my PJs and flung himself round my leg, whilst whining at top volume for nothing in particular and (after a whole morning of tantrums and whining) I actually said 'just GET OFF ME!' whilst trying to shake him off my leg. We both fell over. Good times. The rest of the day improved dramatically after we had both had a nap.

I'm freezing my tits off today. Office was lovely and warm and then I had to haul 10 boxes of paper up three flights of stairs and I was a sweaty mess so opened the windows. Went to do something and came back to find that it has hailed on my desk and you can now see your breath in my office. And the heating wont come back on again until about 3. Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck. Someone has also stolen my electric heater. I shall find out who though because I wrote my office name on it after several other theiving attempts.

Oi how was caravanning?

Northern I try and meal plan. I try so hard. Then it all goes to crap in the week because I don't fancy what I've bought, or DH 'isn't hungry' (read, he went out for a big lunch) so then I don't want to cook for just me (DS eats at nursery) so I just have toast. Blurgh, something to work on.

Caravaning was great. The weather held out. Cleethorpes was surprisingly nice. Boi rode on a donkey. We made sandcastles. Had fish n chips, and ice cream.
The fireworks were fab at the c park, and Boi enjoyed them (after done persuasion).
And DH fixed the central heating last night. See. He has some uses.

Yeay for boiler! Are you around this Friday afternoon? Glad you had fun at Cleethorpes. We were going to go up to Skegness last time we were home but the weather was pish.

So, my boss is away and there's this project on and I've just been dropped an email saying can I do x, y and z (yep, not a problem) oh and can I go to the meeting with the local authority about this project (that I know nothing about) and can I explain how it's all going to work (even though this hasn't been finalised yet). Shitting. A . Brick.

I don't know who Boba is either, my guess is Gary.

hop hope you manage to wing it ok.

mopsy hope the week goes quickly for you.

Hope the meds make a difference queen.

We have all the new appliances coming tomorrow, fridge, freezer, dishwasher and range cooker :o. We're hoping it will be finished on Thursday depending how long the last jobs take.

Hurrah for new shiny white goods!
Hop - are you asking if I'm free in Friday so you can hoodwink me into going to your meeting for you?!
Yes, I do believe I'm free. We were thinking of going to the 'van again as Ma n pa are away. But I'm thinking we'll stay here and chill (aka clean the house) instead.
In other news, I am 41 tomorrow. This sounds awfully old.

I hqvet fab new hair cut, so feel much better about the meeting! And Oi, you will probably do a better job than me! Shall wet meet up Friday after for a celebratory piece of cake? Happy Birfday for tomorrow!

Urghh, feel shattered, think it's a Family Guy/something else that requires no higher brain activity and then an early night.

Happy birthday for tomorrow Oi, sure you'll do something fabulous Have you got buckets of Martini Rosso ready, or will it be champers all the way?

And I know how you feel Hop; I've got to go to a meeting on Thursday in the middle of fucking nowhere the county, to discuss strategic transport issues. I don't even drive . To be fair, of the other senior bods who should attend, one's out of the country and the other's at his MIL's funeral, so fairly cast-iron, but still.....

Nnnnrg, our washing machine is making scary noises. Think the bearings may have gone. Not what we need!
Which range have you gone for, seven?

Happy b'day tomorrow oi!

Hop - yes, let's meet. The fab new haircut must be viewed!
Nothing fabulous planned. I am working. I have purchased cakes for the office. And pork pies. (Requested by Purchasing.) other than that, I do not know. I have bought rib eye steaks for dinner... Have pre-made wraps for lunch. There will be a choice of red wine or champagne to sip with dinner... But really, I've left it with DH. He's trying to keep me sweet, so I should be ok.
Nothing planned "night out-wise". We're off to TEDx on Sunday 10th so the GPs have Boi all day and overnight then... And they are away all this weekend. We don't really have any other sitters to call on.
We'll go out at weekend with the Boi, no doubt.