March 2013- the one where plonk gets married!

[Gerrythetootallgiraffeswife]

Perilously close to filling the old thread suddenly!

Yummy does he take after his dad by any chance ? In this house chewing is a decidedly feminine trait.

I am so happy. Why did I not think of nursery breakfast club before? Not only did the round trip take 30 mins rather than 1 hour, as I missed the school traffic, I also avoided vomit, stress, and the usual morning trial that is trying to convince her toddlership that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and requires protein. Utter joy.

Yes Doli! If it's too hard right now just outsource. You've got a very handy excuse in your belly to make everything as easy as possible.

Idiot glaziers notwithstanding.

Yes nursery breakfast and tea is very useful.

doli I have made the connection now. Maybe it is a male trait. Dh wolfs down his food.

Looks like ds has caught a virus again. My bathroom is full of sickie pillows, covers, bed sheets and teddies waiting to be washed.

Can we have what I'm sure will become our annual poll of 'what temperature is the toddler's room and what are they wearing to bed' please? We're at 28C despite all attempts to cool, and tonight will be nappy and 1tog sleeping bag. She needs the bag to sleep it would appear

Gerry according to the thermometer it's 25 in there. He'll be in a nappy and possibly a tee shirt, 4.5 tog duvet to start and if he fusses he'll get a blanket.

Vest and a 1 tog sleeping bag, window open. No idea of the temperature, I dripped water on the thermometer last time I cleaned the filter in the fish tank and it went a bit weird and now thinks it's all of the temperatures at once.

quick dip in for now....we're at 28 degrees despite blind drawn and window closed whilst sun on the room We'll go for same as gerry, nappy and bag made of single layer of cotton. I'm guessing plonk is having a wedmin induced crazy moment with her 4.5 tog claim

That's how toddler duvets come eco!

I don't have a thermometer but I know it's hot hot hot. Its just a vest with a light cover and the window closed for ds.

We're only at 22.9 but he's already woken boiling so I've opened the door. He's in a pj top and nappy and 1 tog bag.

25 degrees here, and nothing lighter than a 1 tog sleeping bag, so I'm going to put her to bed in some PJs and hope for the best. I'd rather be woken later to add a layer than have her sweltering away.

So we've just picked our first dance song

it might be slightly inappropriate but whatevs

Good choice!

Hello to you all. Phew what a scorcher eh? Blimey. Ecotod wasn't delighted about her environmental conditions for falling asleep. Still 28 in there. Apologies Plonky for accusing you of being wedmin crazy! We're still on bags here so duvets is a whole unchartered water for me. I had visions of the thickest possible padded affair. Duvets are much more sensible I guess as he'll just kick it off if he gets hot?

I would like to second gerry's assertion that as mothers we need to give ourselves a break. I agree wholeheartedly and I know if makes sense health and happiness wise......and yet.....I have thus far been incapable of it. But it is my intention to try and do less. I have a wellbeing/lifestyle shift coming now we've moved. In the past when circumstances have left me sad and battered I have explored what makes me happy and well and I know the following things work for me: good food, lots of water, exercise outdoors every day, writing a little every day, reading something challenging/stimulating every day, writing to or calling someone regularly. I will begin once the pictures are on the wall. That's the marker of being officially 'unpacked' isn't it?

Still bit chaotic here although 90% of boxes unpacked and put away. The remaining ten per cent is stuff that there is no room for, despite leaving a garage and roof space full of our stuff back home. So it's the tricky ten per cent and may take me some time.

Ecotod seems, thus far, to be coping well with the change of scene although the garden. is proving hard for her. It is terraced and each terrace is three courses of bricks high with a step and there are about ten so it's not ride on toy friendly and she cannot work out how to get down them. Anyone else got a toddle that has learnt to scale these beasts in a downward direction?

Plonky I'm too old to know your first dance tune I'm afraid but I'm pleased you are going your own way. Are you better?

Doli have you tried whole earth nut butters? We can't have you at the centre of a nut butter shortage. I reckon they're a good source of calories for your hungry body right now.

Stormy how's the shouting been today?

Yummy did DS pick up and are you still free of that particular lurgy? Fingers crossed.

Something it's been long enough for puppy to settle now. How's that all going? Do you love it?

Shattered I shall repeat myself and echo what someone else said: where the blazes are you?

Wotta great weather for your week off. Are you in relax mode now you've done all your chores?

Well, it's time I got out of this bath really. I unpacked our fiction books today and remembered a load that I've not read yet so I'm going to get stuck into one. Night all and good luck with the temperatures.

Glad to hear the unpacking is going well Eco, despite the 10%. I hate the stress of house hunting, packing, the actual moving. But I love it when everything is clean and in it's place. We're due our windfall sometime in the autumn so I think I might be begging some moving with a toddler tips from you.

Ds can get up and down steps, it's one of the few times his cautious, slow nature has so far been a real boon. He literally just crawls backwards down them. He first did it indoors on some shallow stairs, it took him about 5 goes and wandering off into other rooms, then coming back to it and nailing it. She'll get the hang of the garden, especially as she grows.

And I'm certain you'll find your way once again and figure out the pace you need to change to. Relocating is so different to just moving, there's so much to figure out. For now drink lots of water and get as much sunshine as you can!

I'm feeling well again. My back only bothers me if I rub it really hard and I'm putting it all down to stress. My period still hasn't arrived and I'm putting that down to longer cycles these days and hopefully nothing more. And the wedding plans are all set in place, now things just have to get done according to a timetable that I haven't yet written. I mostly sacked off work today so I could get bits of housework done, and this freeing up nap time tomorrow to send emails to various people. Our minds have been on music tonight so we've picked our ceremony songs as well as our awesome first dance.

Phew. I'm going to have a lot of free time once this wedding's over aren't I? I know most of you are already married but to those that aren't, or ever plan on remarrying in the future, a word of advice : hire a wedding planner, and do not decide to have a DIY wedding.

Whole Earth Eco? Did you really just say that? It's a palm oil one.... I have a whole other random selection on trial at the moment, all better than the Meridian as it is now, but not a patch on the Meridian as it was before. Its always the same. Whenever I find a product I love, the powers that be just have to meddle and either change it or discontinue it.

Glad you're finally in, and mostly unpacked. Tip from my mum re steps. Teach dd to go down backwards by example. I have yet to try this tip, but apparently it worked 40 odd years ago. Nothing if not up to date my mum

Something I have completely failed to ask after the puppy. Which is rubbish? How're you coping? I've done the puppy thing 3 times. Every time I say never again... but there is always an again. Given our current dogs are 8 and 5 I'm guessing I have another 8 years puppy free before we're going to have to go down that road again, as once you start childhood with a dog, you kind of have to continue it that way. Would it be bad of me to confess I really hate the puppy phase? For me they get cute at the more civilised age of 3!

I should be in bed really, but it's sooooo humid. Roll on the promised thunder.

The plane news has freaked me out a bit tonight as well. I'm never getting on a plane again.

Doli I asked FIL about the palm oil thing and how labels can boast about sustainability. He's an alternative fuels guru and did loads of work in the east with these things. His opinion is that soya is a bigger threat than Palm oil but he is v anti greenpeace etc. the sustainability thing is more for the poor kids whose job it is to harvest palm oil and run the plantations - they didn't have any protection or even fucking shoes on their feet, but they do now because companies can't be associated with that shit.

What I mean to say is, palm oil might be the lesser of two evils, and it's better for us that soya products, which are also in everything. The poor orangs would likely disagree but as with all of these things there's a great deal more to it than meets the eye.

And now I'm off to bed(fordshire, move over Eco).

Plonky you're probably right, I don't know a huge amount about it, but I still always try to by the product that doesn't use it whenever possible. It's a tiny gesture in a messed up world, and I also hate the horrible taste and texture it gives!

The big news is... da da dahhhhhh.... it rained last night and the conservatory roof did not leak! I suspect the glazier will be even more pleased than I am.

Well done that glazier. And a very sleepy hello to everyone. We still have lots of shouting. It's a frustrated whinge of a shout, she does it whenever the world isn't behaving precisely as she wants it to so lots, and it really grates on my nerves. Hoping like hell she'll stop when she can talk a bit better and express herself.

We've had singing last couple of days (well, up to a point ). Started by roaring and screaming at appropriate points in row row (which he now requests all the time) and baa baa black sheep and today's effort at twinkle twinkle was recognisable! Proud and rather gushy mum.

Glad weather stayed outside Doli. Always better when that happens.

eco moving house was tough enough with a 6 month old, I can only imagine how ARGHHHH it is with a 16 month old! Just focus on how lovely it will be when there's a place for everything and everything in its place. Then you do a huge sigh of relief and drink wine in the bath. Or fill the bath with wine. Whichever.

Puppy life is crrrrrazy. But we love it. He's 4 months old now, and yesterday DP returned home to a headless doggy doorstop. There are halves of doors barricading the bookshelves to keep the books safe from teeth, the oven mitt has had to be draped over the top cooker because it gets pulled down and chewed if draped over the bottom cooker, wellies have to be put behind the stair gate to block it or we find a puppy stuck upstairs with no idea how to get down (the doorstop was put there to block it but that got pulled through and decapitated), one dining room chair has been branded as "the nibbling chair", and DS's sun cream is full of little, tiny, bitey holes. All fun and games! He's so lovely and snuggly though. It feels like we've never not had him

Yesterday, one of my BFs told me her DP had proposed and asked me to be bridesmaid via text and for DS to be a pageboy. I was very excited until I remembered that the bride-to-be is 6"2 and a size 6, and I...am not. The diet has begun! Also, there are 4 other bridesmaids, he's only just proposed, the wedding won't be til late next year and I'm already in a group chat with them all, planning it...

Speaking of weddings, love the first dance song plonk I think it's just right!!

DS woke up at 3:30am crying his eyes out. I assume it was a night terror. When I picked him up, he wrapped his arms and legs around me and cuddled so tightly. Just put him down again after a few minutes and he was fine. As horrible as getting out of bed at 3:30am is...those snuggles were so, so worth it. He also did absolutely not want to wake up to go to the CM's this morning. I totally understand. Sleep is heavenly.

Something a bath full of wine? Sounds heavenly. As long as it's not any old plonk (and no, I'm not talking in the third person). Puppy patrol sounds tiring. But on the other hand bridesmaiding is a good excuse to drink to escape the insane wedding planners do the silly diet with me and Gerry. Even though you're totes beauts anyway.

And the cuddle sounds sad but delicious. We had some of that at 1.30 and at 4.45 - I think it's got to be the weather. This heat isn't a problem, it's the sodding horrible stickosity.

Doli maybe Dopey the Glazier isn't such a bad egg after all. Nice to not have rain indoors.

So we've covered sleep attire and room temperatures, but is anyone finding it difficult to coax food into their toddler at the moment? DS will not eat anything substantial other than weetabix and weetabix poos are vile so I'm at a loss.

Same old same old with eating here. Muesli and banana followed by a sausage for breakfast. Crackers, toast or omelette followed by yoghurt for lunch, a couple of spoonfuls of whatever I cook for tea. I've given up on anything remotely resembling a healthy balanced diet. She's growing, at least.

Something you have just accurately described why I don't enjoy the puppy phase! One of mine was chewer. He could deconstruct a room and remodel the furniture in minutes if you turned your back for a moment. He also took 2.5 years to house train! It's not my training or lack of skills I promise you. The other dog was clean in 8 weeks, and never chewed anything, but he had a whole other myriad of issues of his very own to challenge me with. I tried many trainers, the last of whom declared 'something is wired wrong in that dog's brain'. An accurate description I'd say . Now they are old and sane I loves them loads.

Phew it's hot today. This probably isn't a good day to be heading out later for vaccinations is it? Chicken pox and MenC boosters, and a long journey to a naming day tomorrow. Oh the joys we are going to have! On the plus side I think the toddle has finally settled at nursery. She tried out a sad whimper rather than full on melt down at drop off, played nicely all morning, ate all her lunch and was to be found happily pootling about carrying two teddies (no tea towels available) at pick up. Such a relief, I can start relaxing about it now.

Food Plonky no idea. This heat is killing my appetite too, and that takes some doing just now. Maybe cold food? Smoothies? Ice cream even? That's milk isn't it, so ticks one of the food group boxes.

As for Dopey glazier I have got strangely fond of him. You know how there are people in this world who just seem to attract disaster? Well he is one of them. He even looks like a puppy who is about to be kicked. He rang this morning to ask how it had held up to the rain, and it was so nice to not have to ruin his day!

Hi everyone.
Sorry for the radio silence, had some very sad news about a friend a couple of weeks ago so been dealing with that.

Lots to catch up on so will def miss something!!

Firstly gerry 49lbs!!!! that is amazing. Seriously impressive . Go you. 35lb left must seem..,easy??!!

Eco well done on the move. We also did it with a 6m old (something was that you too?) and it was not to be recommended. Good luck for the last 10% and for keeping your sanity!

plonk how are the nerves? Good song choice. Hope last few days go well and you don't get too stressed. Hope you really enjoy the day- it goes So Quickly and you're right you'll have loads of spare time afterwards!

Ooh toddle up. Doli hope that bump is growing well with the peanut butter fuel (yum), puppies are behaving, and yummy toddle is better. Best go get the shouty one and return later!