March 2013- the one where plonk gets married!

[Gerrythetootallgiraffeswife]

Perilously close to filling the old thread suddenly!

Thank you Cantturn. How are you doing yourself? Good to see you checking in with us.

Betty I considered going to Birds for a kind of cream filled affair to go with donut week on GBBO. In the end I just went for chocolate hobnobs, the king of biscuits.

Worse your disclaimer had me snorting with laughter. The shit about boys' clothing is the lack of colour. Everything, especially in Marks and Bloody Spencers, is grey, blue or brown. If you like it and can afford it go to Polarn O Pyret for nice bright bits. Otherwise H&M, Sainsbos and Boots are the way forward. John Lewis is quite keen on putting tractors all over unsuspecting items of clothing. But yes, enjoy shopping for your boy!! Have you considered any names yet?

Hope the heart scan goes a-ok. Am
I right in presuming it's the Worselet's scan? I think I missed/forgot the detail somewhere

Oh and Worse, I meant to add a couple of posts ago - feel free to reassure your dh that boys are every bit as funny, cute, and cuddly as girls. Maybe more so!

Plonky you've just made me so jealous with your mention of Birds!!! Mine's an elephant's foot (no idea if that's what they actually call them now but the giant choux bun with cream filling and choc topping, like a fat eclair). Maybe a Bird's meet up is in the offing?

Oh and Something I'm definitely up for White Post Farm meet up as long as I'm not working! I'm told that Wheelgate the massive kiddies park thing opposite WPF is brilliant too.

Worse it's so exciting and I can imagine it does bring a bit of something extra! Definitely go into London early, that's an opportunity not to waste. Maybe a run around JL and then either a potter around National Gallery or the V&A with a large coffee and cake in one of their fab cafés, or a stroll around the park and down the Mall followed by coffee and cake the coffee and cake is mandatory I hope all goes swimmingly for the scan.

I'm sending DD to nursery and spending the day alternating between reading, watching TV, cooking and putting the house back together. Fun times.

Morning all. Sorry for the sudden disappearance. Work got in the way.

plonky nice to have you back as plonky. I am thinking of you all especially baby Arlo. Life is shit and unfair sometimes.

worse boys are great. You have to quickly do a nappy change before the fountain of wee hits you. Dh wants a girl. He says ds is a mummy's boy. I didn't believe in mummy's boy and daddy's girl sayings but in our case it is true. Well wishes for the scan today. I agree get to London early. As the day goes by it gets crazily busy in Oxford st. I assume it is Oxford st you are going to. Asda and Next have lovely boys clothes. I find Sainsburys is a bit boring once they hit 2+yrs but lovely baby clothes.

Betty we too have developed a bit of separation anxiety. 2 out of 3 mornings ds was clingy to me before we dropped him off. Hope you have been able to sort the relationship stuff. Sometimes they need reminding they are not young, free and single but have responsibilities.

eco dd sounds so cute. This is when they start embarrassing us in public.

shattered good luck with hosting. Delegate as much as you can.

stormy I was meant to ask how is your mum? Is she settled in a home now?

Did someone say they want normality? I am washing curtains that are filthy from ds sticky hands and mouth. I have guests over on Saturday so I can't avoid not washing them anymore.

Far too many posts for my dreadful memory, so apologies in advance for missed namechecks!

We have some separation anxiety at the moment too, Betty. Sometimes Fartypants is fine, sometimes she screams blue murder when I leave the room. Chocolate buttons can help to reduce the trauma.

worse good luck with the scan today. I'm assuming it's your son's heart being scanned. Saying "my son" is going to take some getting used to, isn't it? And I don't think I got round to saying it yet, so: congratulations!

yummy my mum's doing alright, thanks for asking. Sometimes they forget to give her her tablet at breakfast then they wonder why she's asleep all afternoon, but other than that she's pretty settled. Mental acuity deteriorating rather faster now though. I was helping her finish a crossword last week, struggling with a couple of clues then realised some of the letters were wrong, because she'd spelt hideous and gorgeous with an I rather than an E. She's always been like me in that spelling comes as easily as breathing, so that was a pretty depressing moment.

Betty how soon do you get your Christmas rota? I think it's just your work we really need to work around (unless Something may be working too?)

Was it eco with the sippy books? I concur with whoever said this is a prelude to her embarrassing you in public. A few days ago we could hear nom nom nom... aaaah down the baby monitor. Feeding imaginary supper to the bears!

Hello, Cantturn, how are you and DS getting along?

Right, my memory's given up, and Fartypants has just made me a great big stinky present, so I had better dash!

Ooh can I perhaps make things a bit awkward? I cannot meet up in the days after Christmas because bloody DH insists on going to the PILs on Boxing Day. Every year. Apparently it's traditional after celebrating all things Baby Jesus to have a football match. I'm told god approves. So we'll be whisked off to Wrexham so he can wear a ski jacket and still get frostbite in order watch some skinny blokes kick a ball on a frozen pitch. Animals sound way more fun, and if you mis say the name of white post modern farm park it becomes a white, postmodern farm park. The black llama's there ironically.

That leaves us with Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve then. MIL works Sundays so we're likely to be travelling on the Monday.

No chance of doing it sooner? Christmas is three months today, that's, like, forever away!

Well Fartypants will be down your way in three weeks, but I won't be. I'll be at home having a little holiday, with lots of lovely sleep.

Boo! You don't need sleep, you need to fondle a chicken.

I can fondle a chicken any time. We do have them in the grim northern wastes too! I would be up for delaying WPF until it's actually warm though, and just meeting up at someone's house for tea, cake, and an excess of toddlers though. And I'm sorry to be so rubbish, but I really do need those few days off. They're good for my sanity, in the absence of any proper holidays. That private hospital I like to botch about, it's out in one of the villages, and aside from going there, and to my landlord's in Beverley, I haven't been outside the city boundaries for nearly two years.

No, wait, I tell a lie - I did have that day trip to the Lake District last summer, scattering my grandparents' ashes. Which wasn't exactly a holiday.

Hmm think you've rather misunderstood my question.

Will work around you,

Can I ask if aibu? It is about dh and his untidiness. Dh ate an apple last night. This morning I wake up to find the core on the side. This made me angry. I am trying to keep on top of the housework and do a bit everyday so I don't get overwhelmed. I know ds will make a mess as he is a toddler but dh is a grown man surely he knows when half eaten rotting things need to be thrown away? It is not just about this bloody apple. The wider context is dh is so untidy and I can only relax in a clean and tidy home. I am not a complete neat freak though. I am not expecting him to come home after work to clean the house just to tidy up after himself. Am I being too controlling? That's what he says I am. Sorry I just needed a bloody rant.

Stormy you're right, it's babax undergoing the ultrasound today. I'm sure he's absolutely fine but I'm on a list now as someone with genetic heart issues in the family so they are looking after me very well. Gold star to the NHS

Thanks for all the London tips everyone. I've made a plan, based round South Bank as that's where the hospital is. Train into Charing Cross, a pootle round Covent Garden and les environs, before a walk across the river along South Bank, past London Eye, and all the tourist hot spots to St Thomases. It's going to feel weird, being a tourist. I've only ever done London as a local, and then you don't care about anything other than getting from A to B as fast as possible and getting all those damn tourists who meander aimlessly 3 abreast off the pathment!

I'm very jealous of your meet up plans, but I'll be as fat as a walrus by then and unable to waddle more than 50 yds, let alone all the way oop north. Have fun!

Yummy the toddle is a daddy's girl. Big time. Or maybe it is just daddy aged men in general. When the grandparents were here she did the hidey head too shy, can't play with you you're strangers and scary thing to them, but ran up to my cousin and asked to be picked up for a cuddle the second he walked in the door. DH was a bit put out by that actually. It was funny.

Cantturn good to see you. I hope all is going well with ds and he is making good progress.

Right, I must go... I have a train to catch. All very exciting for someone who never goes anywhere.

yummy neither unreasonable nor controlling. Perhaps point out to him that by failing to tidy up after himself he's actively making work for you through sheer thoughtlessness. Which is a bit shitty of him, really. Does he have a good reason for needlessly making your life more difficult?

worse reckon you'd manage a meet up next summer? Could be hectic with a tiny and a two year old, so if you don't feel you can commit to anything before seeing what type of baby babax is (I've got my fingers crossed for a chilled out sleeper) that's quite alright.

worse hope all went well with the scan, and you enjoyed your London treat day! Did you do what you'd planned? And was there cake, more importantly?

yummy my DP is the same. We have a laundry basket where all you need to do is take the lid off and deposit the clothes, yet somehow his always lodge on top of the lid until some bright spark (me) puts them right.

We've spent the day sorting out DS's room. We've lived here for a year and not got round to decorating his so he's been living in a horrible, grey cave. We've managed to strip, polyfil over the dreadful plaster and DP is now white washing before we paint tomorrow. We'd planned a weekend of cocktails and lunch yet we've spent so much money on paint and duvets and the like that we're foregoing the weekend in favour of making our house pretty. Ah the joys of homeowning.

And DS has learned how to tell the puppy "get down" when he jumps up at the gate

I'm up for a WPF trip sooner. Christmas is so long away. Or a visit for tea and cakes. I have school hols off now so no need to work around me, I'm always free!

You lot are welcome to come see me for tea and cake whenever you like. Although I am a rubbish baker.

One thing I love about the man not living here is not having to be in any way responsible for his laundry. He's taken to doing a load here on Mondays, and has proved competent at all stages of the process. Funny when you think how when I was on hand to do it for him, he couldn't work out the different cycles and he'd forget to dry it all.

I'm more than happy to offer up tea and cakes in my hovel near Christmas. Be warned, it's small and the hill gets icy but the offers there nonetheless.

(There's also a farm park in Matlock...jus sayin...)

Doli hope the scan was good. How's that boy lookin? Good, I bet! Did you enjoy your day out? A day in London to me sounds terrible (no surprises there) but I imagine as a bit of me time to stomp around on familiar territory it's actually quite nice.

Had a lovely chat with DSis today. She's doing incredibly well. BIL is running the Liverpool half marathon in two weeks to raise a small fund for the midwives, so we're going to support them for that. We talked about ashes and scattering and what to do with the nursery. We both cried. And "normal" things too. We laughed a bit. It was a good chat.

Ds is ravenous at the moment. He wangled a second breakfast out of nursery this morning, and has come home to have big rice cakes, chocolate buttons and soreen. I think he's part hobbit.

Plonky you are the best sister, it's like you just know how to do the right thing. I'm glad you are there to support your sister, and we're here to support you too.

Babax is fine! No congenital defects apparent, and plenty of wriggling going on, which made the trip more than worthwhile. London was fun, in a London-y way. Lots of suited and booted business people trying that little bit too hard, and random people like me trying not even a tiny bit.... plus the ever present tourists. I have not mellowed. They still wind me up by wandering aimlessly, and slowly blocking the entire pathment. Something cake was not had, but a nice lunch was. You know the type of lunch we used to be able to have. Unhurried. No spills. Quiet. Not even a tiny tantrum. Well one of those. I almost cried at having to pass on what smelt like an amazing outdoor BBQ in Covent Garden piazza, but pregnancy rules, so I settled for a 'posh' burger.

Yummy DH was the same, but has improved somewhat over the years. It has taken 15 years mind . If your DH is like mine it's more an issue of not really caring whether there is a festering apple in the corner, than expecting you to scivvy for him. I have no solutions, other than to leave it, and ask him next day when he is going to throw it away, rather than telling him to throw it away. That's not nagging see. That's asking for a status update. Clever....

Curve ball here, you know that hotel that they wouldn't sell us.... well they've now decided they will. Funny that. Only issue, we've half walked and have a couple of other irons in the fire now. I'm completely undecided. I guess I ought to remedy that.

Toddle time now. I've missed her (and DH needs a break!)

She's pretty good too, Worse. So pleased to hear about your scan! Great news, go on the Babax!

And that hotels a bit of a chin stroker. Sounds like the vendors have woken up and smelled the coffee.

plonky I feel so emotional for your sister. I keep thinking how horrible it must be but she is lucky to have an amazing sister like you in her life.

In a way I am glad my dh is not the only one. Wise *worse as ever you are right. He gets offended when I ask if he thinks I am his skivvy. We have different standards. We have made up now. We sent a couple of childish texts in the morning. When he came home we actually giggled instead of arguing.

worse glad everything is ok with Babax. Central London is nice in small bursts. I have to brace myself for Monday when I have to travel into London.

The hotel business sounds exciting.

I think we need to arrange a southern meet up too. If I told anyone in rl I am meeting friends with ds from the internet they will be .

Yummy when Gerry and I first arranged to meet up, our DH's were very dubious, and we both used the excuse 'we share the same hairdresser' to reassure them. Strangely that did

Which reminds me I've not seen Gerry in ages. Where are you Gerry?! Busy busy with the new role at work I imagine. I hope it is going well.

I'd be up for a southern meet up too

Yy to southern meet ups. I have a vision of us all having a long weekend at some centreparc or something one day...

I have a long day of meetings and driving before I get to see my boys again. Currently in Godalming which isn't very close to home! Wish me luck.

Don't think the man's at all alarmed by me meeting people off t'interwebs. Mainly because I've met quite a few over the last fifteen years and none of them have been nutters yet. And he'll be there for our WPF meet up anyway.