March 2013- the one where plonk gets married!

[Gerrythetootallgiraffeswife]

Perilously close to filling the old thread suddenly!

Good theory, but doesn't seem to hold here. Niece is just as good for everyone, including her parents. DD is hard work for everyone (although she's most inclined to kick off if she can see me but she doesn't have my attention).

The eating thing is depressing too. DD will happily eat biscuits or cake or plain rice cakes. Muesli or weetabix with mashed banana for breakfast, no problem. The only other things she'll eat are omelettes, and crackers with soft cheese. That's it. All attempts to feed her anything else fail. Spoonfeed, she spits it out, knocks the spoon away, says no, kicks off. Won't feed herself with a spoon or with her hands. Won't eat any vegetable, or any fruit that isn't banana. If I put food in front of her and leave her to it, she throws it all on the floor and screeches. I despair.

stormy on the food front I would be inclined to just keep offering a variety of foods at every meal and just not stress about it. I think this kind of fussiness is common at this age as our little ones start exerting their independence but if she doesn't sense any issues over mealtimes eventually won't be interesting to refuse everything just because. One trick that a friend did with her similar food refusing toddler is to leave a cupcake tray out each day filled with load of different snacks and fruit and she found her little one would help herself throughout the day while playing and while no one was looking. Eventually at around age 2.5 her daughter just started eating meals a lot more enthusiastically.

Stormy mine has exactly the same diet, other than toast being another staple. Every now and then it drives me bonkers but most of the time I'm doing as Rainbow suggests and offering plenty, leaving little snacks out and hoping for the best while fuming at binning so much nice food.

Stormy do you have scratching and hitting with the temper? DD only does it when it's me and her and she gives me a hug, for example, then scratches my neck, or goes for my face or pulls my hair - in clumps! I yelled this morning with pain and DH heard and told me not to as it sounded awful outside (windows open). How can I not say 'aaarrrrrrggghhhh' if she does it? She's viscious. I showed DH the scratch from this evening but she's nice as pie with him. Grrrr.

She's slso lovely. That post sounded worse than it is... Anyone else got some erratic behaviour?

Any don't worry, we do too! We have hitting and head butting, but only of DH and I, and the most epic tantrums when she doesn't get her own way. It's impressive to watch! What isn't impressive is thinking 4.55 is daytime. It isn't.

Morning everybody! I've been lurking and finally have time to post properly.

Stormy don't worry about temper or food. Obviously it's stressful on a day to day basis, but she won't always be so difficult. Rainbow's suggestion is actually what I would do/have done when faced with a fussy toddler. Ice cube tray with each section containing different things. Raisins, raspberries, cheese, strips of ham, chocolate buttons, pieces of a goodies oatibar, hummus, cherry tomatoes cut into tiny cubes. No high chair! Just put it on the floor when they're playing at a time you know they're ready for food but refusing to communicate that to you. It really works, even if she only has tastes and spits things out.

And the difficulty thing...well that's par for the course. Some toddlers are easy going and others are harder work. They all act up for mum. I know you go to toddler sessions, is there anything else that's local, free and accessible for you? It sounds like she's the type of kid who might be very bright and need lots of stimulation or will defect to grumpiness. My friend has one of these, she's fabulous but understandably hard work. I will happily post you fags and beer to cope.

We're off to Dorset on our honeymoonish today. I say ish because ds, DSis and dbil will be there, but I'm looking forward to it so much. My DH and I have been absolutely blown away by our guests, were 20% closer to our house deposit now but we're mostly just being smug newly married twats and telling everyone our wedding was the best wedding in the history of weddings. Ds was hilarious most of the day until the grumpiness set in and was entertaining everyone during the ceremony. I thought the toddlesome was going to lynch him when he saw ds eating a sandwich at 5.30.

Oh and a word of wisdom. Do not wear a corset, barely eat all day then drink half a bottle of Pelorus, eat hog roast and cake then jump around for five minutes to a rather fast paced song for the first dance. At 10pm I was naked on the tile floor in the downstairs bathroom, praying to the porcelain gods. But I wasn't actually pissed and came out fighting!

Right, best get packing.

Eco with all your house moving shenanigans, how on earth did you have time to make that garland? Oh and stormy our caps writing is practically identical. I wonder what that says about us!

Well, I feel a little better knowing it's not just mine who's so fussy. I don't normally stress about it, it was just seeing how easy the littlest niece is to feed got me down a bit. Ice cube tray of many things sounds like a good idea, except... she'll just tip it all out and play with the tray.

As for the temper, yes, we have hitting me occasionally, but at least headbutting is reserved for the floor!

DS gave me an amazing fat lip this weekend. But he was trying to give me a hug so he was forgiven.

Ouch! We had a good one last week. Fartypants ran right at me and nutted me, driving the corner of my glasses into my eye. She thought it was hilarious.

Very strange breakfast - happily spoonfeeding herself, but the man had to hold the bowl else it would have been thrown.

Stormy you can get bowls that have a sucker pad on the bottom to fix them to a table/high chair tray.

Having said that ds only ever saw his as a challenge. When he finally did liberate the bowl he also chucked the contents far further than ever before. I started telling him no and moving the bowl/plate away whenever he started mucking about with it. He now does it generally as a sign that he's full, and any other mucking about gets a stern no.

So bloody hard to remain consistent though!

We've tried sooooo many suction bowls. They all suck, pardon the pun.

They're about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I don't even know why I bothered to bring it up.

Hey Plonky. Nice to hear from you, so pleased you had a perfectly lovely day. You and dashing dh look beautiful. I'm trying to work out which photos are pre or post puke .... you look perky in them all I made the bunting card as therapy! It cheered me to liaise with this lovely bunch of nutcases and read their messages and focusing on something non move related was healthy. I also had some initial help with cutting and colours from my sister who is a craft goddess. We're all glad you liked knowing we were thinking of you. Happy honeymoon!

Stormy I like the idea from rainbow and Plonky; it takes onus off of you a bit as you'd not be sat there trying to get food in. Maybe the downside is that you'll have to accept sultanas on your shoes for a few weeks. I guess you're in for the long game. Hold on tight.

An old friend rang today to say her dh is doing some unreasonable flirty nonsense with a younger prettier colleague which has made me However, I am now at dad/sister's house as my sister, bro in law and youngest niece are overseas leaving behind dad who is 75 and my older niece who is 14. I thought I ought to come and check things out and provide some food that's not from the freezer. It would be mum's birthday tomorrow so we'll celebrate tonight with a nice dinner. But right now I need to get some scones in the oven as we have visitors soon. Best make hay whilst the baby sleeps.

Stormy I know how you feel. Neighbour's child is 3 months younger, but eats everything and has done from 6 months, drinks from a cup, and feeds herself. Neighbour has done nothing different to me. I console myself with the fact that unless the wind changes this great paragon of toddlerdom will never be a beauty. An evil but strangely satisfying form of internal revenge

Rainbow I like the snack try idea too, although I also suspect the entertainment value of throwing the tray might out do the intrigue value of the food. I'm going to try it out as an outdoor picnic idea, where throwing food is if not exactly encouraged, not actively frowned upon.

Plonky I'm so glad you had such a wonderful memorable day, and it was lovely for the rest of us to share in a tiny piece of it through Eco's clever card.

eco I am equally for your friend. Said colleague may be younger, but I very much doubt she is prettier, they rarely are, and she certainly isn't a beautiful person within. I hope your friend has it in her to kick her DH out until he wakes up and gets a life. Or even longer.

Have a lovely time with your dad.

Ah the toddler wakes. That was a short nap!

Apparently Fartypants has been a very wilful and disobedient little madam today. She's forgotten basic instructions, like "upstairs!" "come here!" and "please don't kick me..." I shall have to tell the man the 'come here' secret - you sit down, you say "come here", the toddler legs it, you say "over here whenever you're ready", you get your phone out and start mumsnetting. She'll come close enough to grab in under a minute, guaranteed. But from the sounds of it I think it's impending wonder week, with canines springing forth all over the place for extra grumpiness points.

She's self settling again! I have just put her to bed.... and not a squeak.... and this time all credit has to go to DH. After the rocket he got last week he spent the weekend working on the bedtime story lights out routine, and it has worked.

So, that's me happy.

Stormy maybe it's just one of those days? We have them here. Sometime the toddle is just lovely, and sometimes I have to put her in her play pen and let her watch 5 minutes of pingu to restore calm and equilibrium to our lives!

Oh and further to the food comments above, I have come to the conclusion that my idea and possibly your idea of actually eating something does not necessarily equate to that of other mothers. I had two 'really good eaters' round for tea. I was assured they ate everything, and loads of it. They so didn't. They were given everything, but ate about two mouthfuls. The rest went in the bin and on the floor. Now if that were my child I'd say 'mine's fussy, won't eat much of that'.

Go dolitoddle! And well done Mr Doli for fixing his own mistake. We've done well tonight too, down at 7 and not a peep since. I keep remembering last Monday and the night of the hellishy distressing croupy cough. Tonight is heavenly in comparison.

Plonk, the photo of you two signing the register - DS looks just like you!

I remember the littlest niece at about this age. Now there was a child who'd read all the blw books. Sitting in her little chair, plate of spag bol in front of her. Feeding herself with one hand and the cats with the other. Orange from head to toe. Might have skewed my expectations in the toddler eating department slightly.

Gah, stupid fingers writing the wrong niece. I remember the middle niece and her total mastery of food.

any just to say we have biting here so you are not alone. Coincidently me and dh had the window conversation too. My dbro confirmed this as he arrived at mine today. Hate to think what my neighbours think of me.

Just a quick hi from me. I had family over for Eid this evening. Shame I am working all 3 days of Eid so have to squeeze in family visits and phoning relatives. (These are the older relatives who don't use social media so I can't get away with sending a quick message.)

plonky I saw the video you looked so beautiful and you made me get all emotional. Have a lovely honeymoon.

Yummy, happy Eid celebrations!

Doli, hope the settling continues.

Just popping in, DH and I are having our very first night away! It would be mega exciting if I hadn't put my back out giving DD a big cuddle to say goodbye. Nothing kinky here then!

Enjoy Betty! Hope a took the edge off your back .

Quiet innit?

We had two ponks yesterday so had to fill in form at nursery to confirm the bruises aren't their fault .

Hard week at drop off as suddenly he's crying about me going. Think he wants to share what he's up to with me which is sweet but tough.

So nearly walking. Had a couple of v wobbly steps but he just doesn't want to let go of the last fingertip! Words coming apace too. Exciting times.

Hope all you lovely ladies are well and toddles too. For you all later for wine Wednesday.

I broke the thread!

Is anybody there?

I'm here! I'm at work now so I'm here as much as necessary so that I have a reason not to have to pretend to do work.

I forgot to say before, betty you must, must join in with the Christmas time White Post Farm trip. DM and DF took the nephew yesterday and I didn't go because you said I wasn't allowed without you and also because they didn't invite me