December 08 ers still going strong.

[Vagolajahooli]

Hello ladies, can you believe we will be entering into a 6th year of this thread this year?

I'm not sure Beans. But when you find out please can you tell my DD too?

It's so hard isn't it Beans? DS awake at 5.40 today which is much better than 4.45 but way too early. Like you I can't leave him else DD2 will wake and if she is under rested she becomes a living nightmare.

My friend has a two year old who she has to wake every morning. On weekends she lets him sleep as long as he needs and he usually does 7pm - 10am. Last Sat he woke at 7am and was distraught andeft him to cry for 15 mins until he dropped back off!

arti.

ds2 is an early riser too. slept until 7 this morning though but was up around 6 or 7 time through the night . There was me thinking we were making progress after a few nights of 2 get ups.

Yuck to the early rising. I am still up during the night so feel your pain.

Not posting much as we are in the middle of mortgage negotiations. We have a buyer we also have our dream house but its all in the hands of the mortgage gods. Should have a definitive yay or nay by next wk. Terrified and stressed out. And the repayments, waaaahhhhh

On the book front I am reading loads but I dont think any of you would see the books I read as worthy reads. Currently reading Child44.

Oh and when does seperation anxiety hit with a baby? I cant remember DS3 major grumps if I attempt to put him down and do anything. I tried to do a spin class yesterday and got called out as he was hysterical.

I'm so jealous of your friend Arti. DH has gone off on a piss up to London, back late, then India tomorrow morning til Thursday. Don't have a problem with India, but if he thinks I'm doing the early shift tomorrow morning, he can think again! However hungover he is.

Big DDs are off to a party each this afternoon and I've managed to get a friend to take each of them! DD3 is so full of snot and miserable, I can't see myself relaxing at either one. She's very screamy and sad today. First time ever properly. It's miserable.

Jam, I think it kicked in around 5 months with DD3, if I remember correctly. Last night she wouldn't settle at all after MIL had put her down. I went in and hugged her and she held my face while looking lovingly at me, then went straight to sleep when I put her down. Think she'd missed me! Was v sweet, but I don't want to encourage it as I don't want to be DD3 bound every night!!!

VAG!!! We won the FA Cup!!!!!

lady, I enjoyed the cazalet book. it has the same comforting quality as the others. I didn't reread the others first, which was fine, but I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had. There is a poignant end of an era dimension to it and that would work better if you had the rest of them in mind.

I liked love Nina too - partly because I know the part of London its set in quite well having lived/gone to school near there at various times. and sadly am old enough to enjoy 80s nostalgia.

Sorry for the early risers. My two tend to be night owls who are not in a hurry to get up. So we've always tended to have lie ins but at the price of losing our evenings as its often 9 or after before even DS is settled.

helloooooo! loving the sunshine. sybs, hope you had a magical time xx

Same. Should be doing loads of admin boring stuff. Instead dh and I at the pub in the garden. Making the most of his annual leave that was taken for no apparent reason now that our move us pushed back two weeks.

ooh, how lovely Rubes. I'm about to take the girls to a local garden centre that has the most glorious grounds. and just happens to serve delicious cakes. I am feeling terribly virtuous as have lost 5lbs and only had (amazing) asparagus spears for lunch. might have to undo all the good work with a blueberry cake or a chocolate caramel brownie. happy days.

That sounds so lovely Beans. I'm going to take dd2 on Wed as we need veg seedlings. I've left it a bit late to grow some things from seed. The veg patch is a right mess. I need to get my bottom off the sofa in the evenings.

I'm stuck in my office and the weather is glorious.

Second pub meal of the day. Slightly extravagant, but in my defence I did go to the gym in between. And I ran there and sweated Sauvignon Blanc oops.
I love a nice garden centre beans. Hope the cake was nice.

Hello lovelies, struggling through at the moment. There just isn't enough hours in the day. Also are estate agents generally this annoying. We instructed solicitors on Thursday. 6 missed calls today. No message left. When I spoke to them. They are moaning about the starter pack have we returned it etc. bloody hell we only received the email from solicitors on Friday and printed it off on Saturday. If I hear the vendor wants to move quickly once more he can shove his house. I know he wants to move quickly but bloody hell give us a chance. It's only been 4 working days since all offers were accepted.

And breathe.

Congrats on the purchase Jam!! And yes, they arethat annoying, and then some. There are at least 3 estate agents I would quite happily set fire to if it wasn't illegal....

After 4 weeks of laundrette-ing we have bought a pimp new washing machine and tumble dryer. Never been so excited about laundry in my life.

lordy I'm so behind. I have just read for ages trying to catch up & now I need a wee so hopefully back in a mo.

Right back. Completely lost on names, I am immersed in crazy (but quite cute) Dutch names here. The dutch tend to go completely wacky, they love anything very quirky & different. Lady's poncey names would be loved here. However, they prefer a completely made up name. It is not unusual to take the first half of one oma's name and splice it together with opa's name. DS1 latest girlfriend is called P i p a luk's. A friend of mine here is called Pe tr on el la, which is apparently a very old English name. Leisbeth & Lisselotte are popular here as well as Sterren, pronounced 'Stair-are' & is Dutch for Star). One popular name here I quite like is Jasmine, but pronounced Yassmeen. If I were to have had a girl I would have loved Isadora as it is a good Italian name, but was wanting Lucia pronounced with the Italian 'ch'.

sorry have been awol been super busy with uni work & had a lovely little break with a weekend away with some friends in Madrid. managed to see Guernica one last time & ate & drank loads. No one does gin & tonic like the Spanish.

Indith our London house is at South Quay right next to canary warf. Ferry is great as well as a walk across to Greenwich via the foot tunnel under the Thames. The docklands museum is great for kids, as well as mudchute farm. There is a great little cafe called 'the space' & the cafe at Mudchute farm does enormous plates of food for quite good prices. Very very child friendly. There is an ASDA near crossharbour DLR station if you need some cheaper shopping for the apartment. Although there is also a tesco & Waitrose in canary warf. Limehouse is a lovely area if you fancy a walk up the river and just as you get onto narrowstreet there is a great little park at Barleycorn way that leads around to the marina at the start if the canal with lots of narrow boats.

Fingers crossed Jam. Keep us updated. Our London real estate agents are brilliant, but the ones in Derby are a bit dodgy and I am starting to get suspicious that they are ripping us off. Charging for work being done but not showing us any invoices or even able to tell us what work has been done.

oh also if you catch the DLR to tower gateway you get straight to the tower of London. from there you can jump on the no.15 which takes you straight to Tarn! Occasionally the no.15 is an old jump on the back routemaster. It is a nice bus which affords a nice view of the city without the hop on hop off prices.

Vag I had a friend in primary school called Melanie because her dad is Melvin and her mum Anne. I always thought it was a bit odd! Better than a completely made up name though.

Jam Wow they're pushy! How quick do they want to move?

Rubes Have you any special features? A light in the tumble dryer?!

Much colder up here today. Hope the sun returns for half term.

Ha! Hons. That's right I remember yours now. Er I don't know about a light as my main criteria was capacity. It's big. It literally arrived 15 mins ago!
So excited about laundry today. I suspect the novelty will wear off!

Hits Vag!

Hi Vag, welcome back!
Rubes, jealous of your laundry enthusiasm. I have none.

DD3 has this weird head twitch, where it looks like she's nodding really hard. She does it a lot and I really am worried about it. It's so vigorous, it looks like she's sneezing. Has anyone seen something like it before? Am going to take her to the health visitor this afternoon, as am actually quite concerned now. It's been going on for months, but I thought she'd grow out of it and she hasn't. It's got worse. Feel like a bad mother now!

One of the school mums has just had twins called F L A V I A and T I T I A N A. Their eldest is L U C I N D A.

They are slightly poncey right? Apparently her mum has complained that they are a bit posh when both parents are originally from council estates.

The twins are absolutely adorable. Making me very broody.

Beans - DS did that - or something similar
.. I can't remember exactly but I think around 6 months?? I was worried but dh said nah... normal. He didn't do it about 6 months later.

Vag, I meant "hiya" not hit!!

Any word on DD3, Beans? They do so many odd things, don't they, and most are well within the normal range. Let us know how you got on.

Mallorca was fab but I seem to have picked up a virus which has made me feel a bit crap all week. I also realised how monumentally huge I have become and so am quite glad that I am not that hungry as I might kick start the diet. I am 44 for goodness' sakes so I need to get a grip, preferably now before I am fat and 50.

We are off to Dorset tomorrow en famille. I predict lots of beach, lunch out and probably rain. Also I hope to have plenty of downtime to sit on sofa and catch up with you all so I hope I can be around a bit more often.

Love to you all

Owwwww I had my wisdom teeth out today. Staying at mums and the boys are with their dad. So I can rest, general anaesthetic is really horrible.