October 05 - First Birthdays

[Yokefleet]

Happy Birthday to Joey!

JM Thomas is the same as Joey, not a sorry for himself sob either, we get headbanging and screaming! He does seem to go through phases of this and then go back to usual happy chap
We had a lovely day with daddy yesterday, the weather was lovely (and dh on holiday, never been known before!! lol) we walked with my parents alng the sea front for 45mins to a pub which has a pond in the grounds and a fantastic play area for the kids. So we had a good play and a lovely meal and then walked back again. Lovely day just hoping that the weather will be nice again today. Mind you we have got Thomas's MMR today and who knows how long that will take knowing my Drs
We are going to Yorkshire for a whistle stop tour, setting off early tomorrow morning and coming back on Saturday afternoon.
ELF MB hope your little ones are feeling better. Roll on summer I am fed up of these colds going round.
Have a good day

mb I too got very twitchy without the internet connection. I do loads of stuff online, including banking and my diet and am lost without it! Thankfully we seem to be up and running again.

Sorry to break it to you joeysmum, but it's actually the terrible 15 -36months, but that doesn't sound as snappy as the terrible twos. This book talks a lot of common sense once you get past the American-ness of it It was recommended to me by my sister who has three kids. She said she nipped the behaviour in the bud as soon as it started and actually the twos were great fun with all three of them. I really hope I can get it to work for Johnny too.
We are going to toddler group today for the first time. I have no idea what they do there, but I am just wondering if Johnny needs to wait until he is walking before we go. I'll find out this morning. The baby group is right at naptime, and I think he's getting too big for it. I'm sure all the PFB mothers don't appreciate him trying to poke all the little babies.

Oh x posts YF. I hope that they finally give him his MMR today after all the carry on you had with them last time. YOur walk along the sea front sounds very nice indeed. Hope you enjoy your trip to Yorkshire.

mb Hope you both have a great time at the Toddler group

Just to make it clear - not only do we have the feeling sorry for myself cries, Evelyn will have mini tantrums and throw herself on the floor, and kick her feet and fists about. I have no idea how she's become such a diva

She's still poorly, she had to sleep in her pushchair last night because lying down made her cough and snot, lovely.

Oh, MMR. I really must take her... DH is off with her on the 8th March so she can have it then, she'll be just over 17 months so still within the time.

Hope everybody is enjoying themselves, you all sound like you're having a lovely time, and I'm stuck at work with a three hour college session straight afterwards, grrr

I can't wait for those tantrums Elf Johnny has been really grumpy these last few days and bad mummy here didn't realise that the poor child was starving . He shovels down as much as me at mealtimes and has snacks too and he's STILL hungry. It must be a growth spurt or something. Maybe it's all the escaping to climb up the stairs that does it.
Toddler group was actually ok. I was scared to go having read some of the MN threads about scary mums there, but TBH most of the Mums are looking after their kids making sure that they don't punch other kids or steal the play doh and all that stuff. Johnny was a bit overwhelmed though. But he mostly sat and watched with his mouth open. He did want to crawl through the pop up tunnel just as it was being put away. Timing, eh? I was very pleased at snack time though. He sat on a little chair at the table with all the older kids and ate the bits of fruit and drank water by himself from an open cup . PMSL I bet nobody else even noticed! He just so loves being like older kids, I saw that very much so when I was childminding.

Thanks for the book recommendation Mawbroon - i shall be ordering a copy ASAP! Glad Johnny enjoyed playgroup - Joey was initially very shy too, but loves going now

Is anyone else's wee one eating non stop just now? Johnny can't seem to go two hours through the day without getting really uncharacteristically grumpy and whingey with starvation. He is eating three huge meals a day plus about 4 snacks. He used to go between breakfast at 8am ish until lunch at 1130ish with only a glass of cows milk, but we were in the library and he started to scream the place down around 1030 because he was starving . He is also pulling at my top all the time for breastmilk and would feed like a newborn if I let him. DH was a chunky baby apparently and was around 3lbs heavier than Johnny is at this stage, so maybe it's just the way he's going to be built and needs a lot of food to get that way. My sister's three are all skinny minnies and it seems that Johnny eats more in one sitting than my sister's three year old eats in a day and he overtook her weightwise months ago! I am trying to convince myself that the exclusive breastfeeding and the BLW means that he's now regulating his own appetite. FFS, there's always something to worry about, eh?

MB - with Evelyn it is swings and roundabouts - sometimes she eats and eats and eats, other she'll really fuss with food. She's still a skinny minnie but we have had the odd case of her "crying with starvation"

Just back from Yorkshire, good drive home only 4hrs and clear roads
mb Thomas is really off his food at the moment, picking on bits (he is a chunky chap so not too bothered at the moment)
Had MMR on Thursday and where the injection was Thomas's leg has swollen up once yesterday for about an hour that we noticed before bedtime (was clear this morning) and then swelled up late this afternoon, is this normal? (really missed mumsnet last night when this first appeared!) Had a bad night with Thomas in the hotel, he was lovely all day then got tired around 5.30pm as we were leaving dh's parents to go to the hotel (60miles away) anyway ds fell asleep 10mins before arriving at the hotel and as we got him out of the car he was very upset anyway got him settled by 7pm but then as soon as we moved away from him he was screaming the hotel down finally got him asleep between 9-10pm in pushchair then he woke again screaming so put him back into travel cot and he then slept until 7.30am, very strange. Better go and get some tea!

Hope you all had a good weekend
Thomas started eating with his spoon for the first time yesterday and again this morning (I have been giving him a spoon for months but it usually ends up being put behind his ear or he uses it as a hairbrush )

Well done Thomas! Johnny is getting the hang of a spoon now, but what he used to do was pick up food with his hands, lay it on the spoon, and then pick up the spoon and eat the food on it. Not the most efficient use of his time and energy!

I did give him two spoons this morning to try and keep his other hand occupied didn't really do much good though!
I am ready for summer already, the rain is making my new years resolution's had to keep (wanted to get out daily for walks/go to the park etc)

Evelyn will eat certain things with a spoon or fork, it depends on what it is. Mostly we give her one spoon and we have another and take it in turns, other wise she'd still be eating brekkie by the time it came to lunch!

Thomas was having great fun feeding himself this morning, everytime he got the spoon near his mouth he was just laughing for no reason it was very cute to watch.

That sounds super cute YF! Did he actually eat or did he just laugh too much that he forgot to eat?

Johnny and I did some painting yesterday. Lordy, what a mess!! He loved it though and had a tantrum when I tidied away the paint. I brought him down gently by letting him do crayons which he lost interest in pretty quickly as they are nowhere near as exciting as paints!! When he saw his paintings again this morning, he was so excited and started flapping and squealing with excitement! If he's going to be artistic, then it ain't from me, that's for sure.

We are dog sitting for PILs while they are away and although it seemed like a good idea when we agreed it, we have been here less than an hour and already Johnny has eaten dog food and homed in on every unchildproofed thing in the house. The dog leaks a bit and keeping Johnny off the pee covered floor (as well as mopping it every two minutes) will be a challenge to say the least! All my mumsnetting will have to be done during sleeping hours I think and we will just have to go out walks all the time.

mb He did really well in the end feeding himself (took ages though! mind you it gave me time to drink a hot cup of coffee which is very rare

Well done to Johnny the artist After you said the other week about giving Johnny crayons for the first time, I went and bought some for Thomas, he doesn't want to make pretty pictures with them though, he thinks they are a good source of protein
It sounds like you are going to be kept very busy whilst dog sitting I was a nervous wreck at in-laws at the weekend as they are very child-proofed at all, lots of low lying ornaments (and MIL can't understand why we don't have them in our house!)

aren't child-proofed!!

Have finally got round to getting some pics on here if you want to have a look at my profile.

YF - what a cutie pie!!

Ahh, Thomas is a cutie

Elf - does Evie play up once she's been with her CM at all? We're still having problems with ours and i'm seriously looking at giving our notice as despite a conversation with her a few weeks ago, nothings changed, and Joey's been really playing up after he's been with her. I thought it was due to a lack of sleep, as he still doesn't get a nap at hers, but DH left him to sleep for a good 90 mins once he got home today, and he's still been mega grumpy and tearful, culminating in a complete melt-down pre-bedtime that required Medised to settle (which i hate using, and only ever use as an absolute last resort). He was also really upset when i left him with her this morning, and i felt like the world's worst mother. I just feel that all the reasons i wanted him to go to the CM (interaction with other children, getting used to Mummy not being around etc) pale into insignificance when he is so very upset, and its affecting us all as a family. All advice gratefully received.

(ps. formerly Joeysmum, but changed in case i got rumbled by my CM as i think she's also registered with MN!)

I did wonder about the name!

Evelyn is fine when we leave her at the childminders, I take her in and sit and chat for five mins, she'll then wave at me and tell me goodbye! Sometimes when I pick her up she will be a bit tempermental, but she's as right as rain when we say we're leaving, then she'll be waving at the other kids and saying bye.

We dont see any other kids really aside from those at the childminders, and it's still in a small enough situation for her not to be over whelmed like nursery for example. The CM takes her to toddler group once a week as well, and she'll visit her sister who is also a CM so she'll see other groups of kids, but still in small numbers.

I hate leaving her somewhere where she is upset - if we take her to see my MIL, she'll howl and scream, and last week she pratically hoisted herself up my leg just in case I was going to leave without her (we were only visiting) so it makes the odd tear at the CM seem like a piece of cake!

Thanks Elf - that's the sort of reaction i want Joey to have with his CM, but its just not happening. I think between your input, DH's opinion, and my 'mothers intuition', i'll be giving the CM notice next week. I thought i could live with the current situation given that its only once a week, but its just not fair on Joey (or us, given the nuclear melt-down that follows!)