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

[ifyourehoppyandyouknowit]

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

X-post. Good to see you back xiao and glad you're feeling better. Not on the same par but I do notice the times when I feel low I don't tend to post as much. Your Christmas present sounds excellent, and wow to Tanzania

Welcome back Xiao, glad you're feeling better now

Well done on the quiz seven, that's a fantastic achievement

In lighter news, I joined a choir and had first session last night. I am now a tenor lady!

Welcome back xiao sorry to hear its been tough but glad it's improving for all of you.

Aethel hope you enjoyed lunch we went to Nandos yesterday which I usually avoid as don't think it's value for money but couldn't get over how many people were in there .....I thought everyone was skint!! We need new carpets new bed and new sofas but no money do other people just live on credit and say fuck it??

Dh has an evening with his birding committee tonight I'm attending as his trophy wife as he wanted me to come. I'll prob be youngest person by 20+yrs except dh, floodlight swan feed and talk by some director of earth flight from couple years back. Wine and cheese after ....wow my sat nights are rocking!!

DS is coming down with a cold he screamed at us for an hour because he wanted tv on, yogurts, biscuits, to put his boots on he finally passed out At 2.45 is still asleep. He's not used to being forced to nap as we don't usually bother was very unpleasant. Hope he's ok with our friend.......2 nights out in a row get me

American hustle was good by the way.......Amy Adams especially

Welcome back xiao. Sorry to hear things have been tough. Glad things are improving and very glad you had aethel about for some support. And !!! re: Tanzania. How exciting!

aethel hope your lunch was yummy. I made toasted sandwiches with comté... yum! Dinner from Hugh F-W's veg book. Potatoes, green beans, olives, basil. Sounds yum! Haven't been drinking at all in Jan so far but might make a raspberry mojito in the new vitamix which is the best kitchen toy EVER!!

Oi those martinis are dangerous when you've been off the boozles for a while! Hope all is calm again now!!

My headache is finally better after three days of not fun. I marked a whole bunch of exam scripts earlier so I am going to relax now!

Back from the Shopping Trip After The Lunch.

Lunch was yummy: sirloin steak and mash with veg. It's one of those flame-grill pubs, it seemed rude not to. We're not talking Michelin Stars but it's a nice local pub and we all enjoyed our grub. And they do real ale and are only a few minutes away. Support your local, people!

Then we went to spend a few ££ on various things, footy boots and new shinpads for DD1 who's doing footy club again this turn. Socks for DD2 as she's suddenly grown of all her non-school ones. And many little bits for the garden. They had a clearence on spring bulbs. Don't tell my new bulbs it's not December, right??

figgy, I hear ye on the budgetting thing: I absolutely hate credit as it's so inefficient, even having money on a credit card is annoying (and don't talk about mortgages, they are a necessary evil!) But from the figures there are an amazing percentage of UK people in a stack load of debt. And once you're in a money-poor debt-high situation things become more expensive.... Loans, energy, smaller packets of things..... But yes. We have plans to do all sorts of bits to the house, get new furniture, but it will all be done piecemeal when we have the cash, not on credit. In the meantime the lights need doing and the car exhaust is apparently getting a bit old and tired. Exhausts are ££, aren't they? Must check fine print on car warranty...

Ooh and faffin, congratulations on the choir! And as a tenor you will always be in great demand so that's great too!
I used to sing with a choir where the choirmaster was a closedminded sexist whotsit traditional, and insisted "ladies don't have the timbre to sing tenor". He maintained this belief by not letting me (or anyone girly) audition apart from as a contralto, so there was no opportunity to prove him wrong. There were (I kid ye not) thirty-eight altos, and 5 tenors. I didn't sing with them for very long, it was too depressing.... What sort of music are you singing?

I totally agree with you both on credit figgy and aethel. Apart from it being expensive there's just no way I'd enjoy something if I was paying for it later once it was old (e.g. buy now don't pay for a year sofas) or over (e.g. a loan for a holiday). Houses, cars, studies I can see the usefulness of loans but otherwise no thanks. I'd rather save up for a holiday or buy things as and when j can (the vitamix we got from wedding present money... one of the few frivolous bits we got and I LOVE it!)

Welcome back Xiao. Glad to hear things are getting better. I am so jealous of your Xmas present. And Tanzania doesn't sound half-bad either. (Well done Aethel for being there to give support.)
Tenor lady congratulations!
I agree about credit too. I have a cc, but pay it off every month. I use it for the points. (John Lewis )
We've been looking at cars today for DH. We're going to get a Volvo C30 we think. (Used) very exciting!
With DH's money we're going to get all the big jobs done in the house. Oh shoppi, who do I love thee!
Fireplace and wall-knocking down and building, new balcony surface, new patio doors, carpets and wall paper. Whoooooo!!!! Show me a mood board!
Mopsy - I just told him that everything that he'd said that night had been very annoying... We're ok now. I apologised. I'll stay off the booze, and hopefully I won't get annoyed again. ()

There are only 3 men in the whole choir, all of them bass, so there are a handful of female tenors. Lots of altos and sopranos, so as soon as I said I wasn't a soprano the tenors grabbed me to see how I got on with them, rather than lose me to the altos. Suited me fine, especially as we occasionally jump an octave if it's more comfortable. It's a choir more about enjoyment than the most spectacular singing. No audition required either, so just the job for shy old me! We are currently learning hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) and adiemus (Karl Jenkins)

Well my evening was actually quite interesting I bagged 3 glasses of wine as a committee members mrs won a bottle of wine in the raffle and smoozed with the very attractive documentary film maker (who was involved in filming the dolphins in the pod which was on over Christmas) over the values of old guard narration from sir David Attenborough or the next generation vocal intonations of fellow scot David tenant.

I'm going to bed now

Wow, so much to catch up on in one day!

Xiao, it's absolutely lovely to have you back, as someone who avoids FB I had to ask for updates from folks here, but you obviously had a really tough time. Hooray for drugs and sun How is little G getting on?

Good luck for your DH too; great thing about MN is that it won't matter if you're in Thurrock or Tanzania, you can still post

Glad you had an unexpectedly good time figster, and a night out's a night out, even if it is at a birding committee!

I'm with you mopsy, I've never had credit in my life, bar Student Loan/mortgage which are unavoidable. I paid off my Student one asap, but it drives me mad that every time I go into the bank they try to flog me a loan or a credit card. I'm going to save up this year for some nice new furniture for the house . By the way, MN ate your ingredient, what was it you had in the toasted sarnie?

Glad you're still feeling OK seven, though is that the preggo munchies I see with your chilli-fest at half 11?

This is our last proper day at the house, the packers come tomorrow... we're cooking for England, for the freezer, as we won't have any cooking facilities bar the microwave for up to a month, washing, cleaning, and also doing our favourite walk out to the country pub for lunch, as a goodbye, sniff

Ooooh northern, so exciting!! If you can bear it, go round the house this afternoon before it's dark and take photos of every room, then do it again when it's totally packed up and empty: sounds a bit nuts but it's good to have those photos to talk to DS about if he wants to chat about moving house. There's also a good usborne experiences book called "moving house" (simple little pictures and words one) that my DDs liked reading through even after we'd moved: kinda made sense of the whole thing? for tomorrow!!

DS has chosen today to go totally 'off piste': conked out on way home from pub on the walk, fine, but then re-settled when we were back, and is still asleep...

I was wondering about what to do ref explaining it aethel, thanks for the tip. I'm hoping that as the house we're moving too is similar to ours, and of course will have the same stuff in, he won't notice too much!

DS is on one today he's been screaming on and off most if the day in a sulk now been crying since 7.30 dh thinks we just leave him I think that'll just make him worse, he thinks me going up trying to calm him down encourages bad behaviour

I ended up soft play Marshall today 2 boys pushing shouting and punching 3 little girls why don't parents supervise their children

I think DS is brewing something. He woke up distraught at midnight and then clung to me like a limpet all night. And now the boy who doesn't nap is asleep on my chest. Very odd.

Hop DS is the same I noticed this morning a back tooth poking through which hopefully explains the behaviour over the last 3-4 days.

Flooded car this morning meant despite getting up washed dressed etc I had nowhere to go. Now sat in my trackies and thick jumper trying to be diligent (whilst dreaming of the cadburys crew egg in the fridge )

In a bid to stop throwing food away I have just made stir fry with left over roast chicken from the weekend. And turned two black bananas into a cake. Nom nom.

Does anyone else have a LO whit is lovely 1:1 with you and then turns on the obnoxious when others are around? DS is like this lately and it's making me not want to go meet friends.

Yep, hop that's quite usual... Aethelspawn was quite happy to go a-pushing and a-shoving when we met with xiao last week, the Trains Were Not For Sharing...
It's the rule of Toddler. ( What's mine is mine, what's yours is mine, what's communal is mine, and what I'm bored of is yours. Until I want it back, then it's mine.)

Ah, the Rules of Toddler... the first rule being you shall never comprehend the Rules of Toddler. Yep hop, the first time DS met my friend's DD, who's about 6 months younger, he wouldn't share, and actually kissed his toys in repeated, posessive triumph when he got them back

Well, we're packed up and ready to go. Exchanged gifts/cards with lovely neighbours, and could cry at leaving them. All ready for the off tomorrow. We won't get t'internet back until Friday so will be off-line for a bit, not even able to lurk. Should we get to a new thread, someone PM me!

See you on the other side

Lovely to have you back Xiao! Hope you're feeling better each day. x

DS1 is (still?) a sharer! He gives everyone everything...included pre-licked crisps, lovely.

Northen, good luck! V.scary how quickly everything finally fell into place for you!

Hurrah for Tenoring Faffin, sounds great. How did they decide you were Tenor..did you have to single solo infront of everyone?

Happy bleated birthday Fig (although it's more intime then your dechristmas-ing name change)

The ttc is going great hear, even if we don't end up with another one we're having lots of sex again, hurrah!

DS1 was watching Gigglebiz earlier today, and whenever Justin Fletcher was on screen he shouted 'Look Mr. Tumble'. Rumbled!
He's also started saying 'wee', 'poo' for attention when I've got DS1...normal?

DS loves Gigglebiz. Latest related thing from
him is a "Captain Adorable" impersonation. If you ask him what CA says, he pumps his little arm a la Superman and says "ap-ap-awaaaaaay!" And runs out of the room. It's very funny.

Blimey another hour long bedtime battle he usually zonks out within minutes don't know what to do with him when he's like that. Not sure if it's the teething or his new found fear of the big bad mouse from gruffalos child but we have lengthy requests/demands that we sit with him or that he comes to our room. He gets so hot and bothered too.

Good luck northern!!!

Good luck with the move northern, hope all goes well

boba fortunately no solo or audition was required. The tenors asked me to try with them and see how I got on, with the option of moving to altos if I wanted. Their theory being that once you're settled in a section you don't want to move, and there are loads of altos whereas tenors are in short supply!

Glad you're having fun with the TTC boba

Welcome back xiao we missed you! Glad the sunshine helped, and that aethal has been there to support you. I love seeing pictures of the Dec 2011 spawn meeting up on FB.

Good luck with the move northern!!

Figgy I swear they are like tiny belligerent drunks at times. They get something in their heads and that's it, broken record and nothing you say will change their mind.

We had a minor falling-off-the-bed incident at the weekend. DS was bouncing on the bed, being supervised by DH, while I dried my hair. Except he didn't have hold of anything and did a (would be funny if it wasn't terrifying) massive jump off the end of the bed, somersaulted in mid air and landed on the floor, against the chest of drawers with a massive BANG. Bruised head and small bruise on his back. It sounded awful but he didn't even cry so I assume he was just very lucky. The motto of this story is No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed.

Glad it's not just mine who is so different when we're with friends. He's just so lovely when it's just us two, I kind of wish he would stay like this. He's really affectionate and just wants to 'play? mummy? play garage? play dinosaurs?' all the time.

Today I am writing a social media policy. Fun times. Anyone fancy a job swap?

Good luck with the Social Media policy. My advice (and I'm sure that you've done this) is to search online for other companies' policies, and completely plagiarise them. Why put yourself through all that when bigger companies (with social media departments and legal departments) have already done all the legwork?
No more monkeys jumping on the bed. This made me smile a lot. And, oh, how Boi would giggle when, over Christmas, it changed to No more Angels jumping on the bed. How we laughed. It's so nice being the funniest person ever, don't you agree fellow mummies?
I am working chez moi today, curtesy of codeine. I've never had back pain before, don't want it again.
I put it down to a full year of withholding tension and not letting it out, and doing all the (BOi) lifting (and bedtimes) since DH had his hernia op last month. The straw that broke the OiMissus' back was going back to having a manual car. After a week of gear changes and getting used to the new car, my left shoulder just said: NO!
Too much tension. Not enough strength.
Summary: I need to start some kind of exercise again to release the tension and build the strength back up. But for now, heated wheat pad and codeine, thank you please.