October 05 - First Birthdays

[Yokefleet]

Happy Birthday to Joey!

Well, Joey's going into his 'big boy bed', aka a toddler bed, from tonight. Wish me luck....

(incidentally, I've been a coward and left his cot still up in his room in case the transition from cot to bed isn't successful!]

Hey, good luck with the big boy bed. Johnny is staying put in his cot for now. He often sleeps with his back against the bars which would have meant a falling out of bed for certain. Did you see the tip of the day on the front page the other day? It was along the lines of putting the duvet sideways on the bed and tucking it in to help prevent it getting kicked off and the toddler falling out.

Johnny hasn't really been clingy as such, but we were at my SILs and he wasn't as keen to play as he usually is. He just stood very close to me. One of his cousins is at the learning to share stage, so perhaps Johnny remembers having toys taken off him and didn't want it again or something.

He is still on single words at the moment, but the other day I changed his nappy and said that he had done a nice poop (saying it's nice in the run up to potty training rather than saying it's yuk or smelly or whatever). he seems to have poops and farts muddled up, so he started saying fart fart fart, however he can't quite say it right and as clear as anything, he was saying fck, fuck, f*uck. Ever tried changing a nappy whilst shaking so much from holding in laughter? It's bloody difficult

And then tonight, I took his nappy off, and when I lifted him off the changing table, the cloth that's covering the changing mat was stuck in his bum cheeks and he was running about with this nappy hanging out his backside. Much amusement.

So much for that idea! I tried putting him to bed but he just sat up looking really worried (despite happily lying down on the bed earlier on in the day!) and wouldn't settle, so he's back to sleep as normal in his cot!

Thankfully the cot fits on top of the toddler bed, so i haven't had to move it out completely, and we'll just try him again in a few weeks. Its not like i need the cot or anything, so i'd rather settle him at his own pace.

Sorry it didn't go so well Stinky.
We're taking the cot sides down this weekend (according to DH ) and turning it to the cot bed, though it does have a small side so no worries about her falling out (again, according to DH!)

Is it bad that when I was singing "FiFi and the Flowertots" Evelyn toned in with a slow but fairly clear "Fifi forget me not" her forget wasn't very clear but clear enough for me to laugh like a looney and think maybe I should stop singing it!!

Too bad stinky! At least you hadn't put the cot away in the loft or anything! And no point in fighting with him over it would be my thinking.
LOl at Evie singing Elf! Johnny is still on single words, but he is now managing two syllable ones. Whenever I say "right, johnny, it's time to go out" he runs about saying "backpack, backpack" and his latest is "digger" but he says it in the funniest aceent. "deega, deega, deega" he says.

We've been using a booster seat at the table since yesterday. I was looking after my niece and nephew yesterday and I had another seat in the car, but seeing that would mean three little lambs trying to follow me out to the car and then crying when I shut the gate, I decided just to put my nephew in the highchair and johnny in the booster. It's got no straps or anything, it's just to raise him up to the right height for the table. It was great. he sits there no bother until mealtime is finished then he asks "down". He does spill a bit of his food, but not that much. hooray. I can fold the higchair up and put it in the corner which will give us a bit more room. I can't really put it away yet as we have a few younger visitors come quite a lot.

We have a booster seat at my mums rather than the highchair. At home we have one of those that turns into a table and chair, so we really just use the chair portion.
My dad brought her one of those yellow and red cars today from the car boot, cost £3.00 and she's had hours of fun with it today!!

I was boot-fairing today Elf! I made £180 Not bad for just a quick house rummage and 4 hours of selling stuff this morning with my sister!

Well done on the car booting stinky! Me and MIL have accumulated a load of junk and are going to have a boot sale soon. Any top tips?

Johnny has started saying "thank you". Well, it's not recognisable really, but he says the same thing at the moments when thank you would be appropriate, and get this, I didn't teach it to him. He can also say "tidy" and tidies his toys after tea without being asked. I am still waiting on tantrums and terrible two-ness, but no sign of it at all. It's amazing. I'm not complaining!!

MB I am waiting too!
I am shocked at Evelyn's politenss, she says please and thank you without being prompted, no idea how as we haven't taught it to her per se, maybe its just something she has picked up on between me/DH and the CM/mindees?
Not only does she do the please and thank you, but she shares her raisens with the other kids at the childminders (puts them in little piles and shares them out, "here go Nais, here go Sam, here go Larlot" as she hands them out, and if she goes to get herself some raisens from the kitchen, she brings a box for herself and for me.
Bless.
I'm sure when she's a little older I'm going to be posting that she's a NIGHTMARE but at the moment, I cant see it coming!!

The only top tip i'd recommend, Mawbroon, is go with the flow and don't have any expectations! (and have a huge bag of loose change!! Everyone was paying with 20 pound notes that they'd just got out of the cash point!) I deliberately didn't put price labels on anything, and luckily most people paid what i wanted, although inevitably some stuff went far cheaper than i'd have liked (but any money is better than none, which is all i'd have ended up with if i'd binned it all!). Joey's old baby stuff sold well though.

OK, will bear that in mind stinky, thanks.

Johnny seems to have started to do imaginitive play all of a sudden. He fits a couple of blocks together and then either signs or does the sound effects for the boat, or bus or plane or whatever it is he's made. There are also a couple of people who fit on to the blocks and one of them appeared to be on a horse this morning judging by the neigh and clip clop sounds. He also brings me his wee blanket then lies down on the ground because he wants me to tuck him in and pretend he's going to bed. This morning, he tucked in his toy digger under the blanket - very cute indeed.

He has been waking in the night for the last god knows how many weeks now, so I decided to stop feeding him at night as I am trying to cut down bf to help ttc. It took one night of DH going in instead of me and then he slept through the following three nights. It's my own doing, feeding him for two mins back to sleep is the easy option, but then he wants it every night, so I have to be strong and send dh through although it's hard to lie in bed listening to "mummy, mummy". I actually find that worse than just crying.

The weather is hideous here again today. The forecast said sunny and 20 degrees. Somebody at the met office must be on their last day and having a laugh

Forgot to say that Johnny napped for almost FOUR HOURS yesterday and went to sleep as normal at bedtime......

I have no idea why, but perhaps he's coming down with something

Wow Mawbroon! 4 hours is very impressive - these days Joey sometimes struggles with 4 minutes!! (My mum reckons i grew out of naps quite young too. So much for my few hours peace in the afternoon - Joey's like the Duracell bunny)

5 weeks tomorrow till Joey's birthday!!!!!!

Evelyn had 3.5 hours on Sat, I kept prodding her to make sure she was okay!

Got my exam results today... there were two exams, two sections each, and I passed three sections and failed one. It means I have to resit the whole paper (two sections) even though I passed one section, but never mind! It is what I expected!

ach, bummer about your exam Elf, but hopefully you will sail through it this time.

I'm going to take badly to it when Johnny drops his naps stinky! I love my two, three or sometimes four hours in the middle of the day. He has now slept over two just now and is still asleep but we need to go out later, so hopefully he will wake as I hate waking a sleeping baby!

We were at the city farm this morning which was lovely as we finally have some great weather. Johnny was in his overalls and looked just the part . There was a pig there with piglets and we got a very good view of her boobs. Johnny recognised what they were for and started signing "milk" . What a compliment eh?, my son thinks my boobs are like a pig's!

Elf - good luck with your re-sit, shame you have to resit the whole paper.

MB - hows the charting going. I found it quite hard as ds was still waking me up at funny times and I kept forgetting to take my temp.

I am finally starting to feel vaguely human again (nearly 11 weeks now) although I'm still having to have a midday nap with ds otherwise I'm a zombie by about 5.30pm. Have my scan in 2 weeks time. Feel abit nervous, part of me still won't believe I'm really pg until I see the scan, another part of me is terrified it's going to be twins lol. And finally ds has started sleeping through on a regular basis, just as I have become incapable of sleeping for more than two hours without needing the loo. Aaarrggh.

Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better DLAMIS. I hope all is well with the scan. How exciting!! I have only been charting for around 2 weeks now, but my temperature dropped when I started my AF which means that it must have been raised before, which I am hoping means that I am ovulating after all, but of course it's too early to see any kind of pattern. The LLL leader recommended a book for me to read, but right now, I can't remember the name of it. Something like Breastfeeding and natural family planning I think.

I am going to start another thread on this, but are any of your LOs showing obsessive behaviour? Is it normal at this age? Johnny has taken a shine to my salad spinner. He has played with it a couple of times before, but yesterday and the day before saw him playing with it non stop for 2.5hours, only stopping when it was tea time. He puts little toys in it and watches them spin round and round. He shrieks with delight and says "saiya, saiya, saiya" (salad) over and over again. He stuffs his blanket in it, he puts his shoes in it, you name it, he tries it in the salad spinner. This morning, as soon as he had finished his breakfast, he was asking for it. I have decided only to give it to him if he asks, but he played with it from 8am until I made him stop at 11am as we were going out.

Part of me is very happy indeed that he can amuse himself for 2.5 hours, but a tiny part of me is wondering if it's a bit OTT At least he's forgotten about the bloody hungry caterpillar though.........

MB, for the past four days, Evelyn has done nothing at home but play with her new books (of FiFi characters) putting them to bed, taking them out, handing them out, taking them off us...

Is this one of these times where we must utter the MN chant of "it's just a phase, it will pass, it will pass" ?

We had an allergy appointment for Johnny this afternoon. Big waste of time really seeing he hasn't had a single exposure since his blood tests were done in January, but we did get him weighed and measured. He's now 13.5kgs and 85cms. Is he big or small compared to all the others? He also got his first ever well done sticker.

Gutted - had a call from my solicitor today, and whilst she accepts that my employers acted negligently following my accident a few months ago, they did not cause the accident, therefore she will not be pursuing a liability claim against them

Back to the drawing board re jobs. DH has suggested he gets me pregnant, so i can go off on (paid!)maternity leave when my sick pay entitlement runs out! I hope he was joking! i don't think my poor back could take any more strain

What a pisser stinky. How long are you signed off for?

As long as necessary!My GP is doing it a month at a time, so he can keep an eye on my recovery , which at the moment is minimal to say the least

I get 6 months sick pay, which i'm 2 months into, but they've awarded me the temporary injury allowance which tops my wages up to 85% of my basic salary, and that should theoretically last as long as my sickness ie. it can go beyond the 6 months.

Oh to be back to normal and to be able to be a proper Mummy again...i do worry that Joey is missing out compared to his peers, as there is just so much i can't do at the mo.

Hello guys, Hope you are all keeping well sorry to hear about your back problems SM, what is the next step for treatment?
SM sorry it didn't work out with the big bed for Joey (just seen your profile pic, and Joey is such a cutie! I didn't remember his name was Joseph!! ) You did really well the your booting fair! I may have a scout round see what I can find of Dh to give away! Is Joey still as clingy? Thomas is really bad at the min, won't let me leave for a moment but he seems to be teething again.
DLAMIS How is the pg going hun? Fingers crossed for your scan. Twins run in my family & I was scared to death until we had our scan. Great news about your lo sleeping through now though.
mb Is Johnny sleeping through the night again now? Thomas is having a 2hr nap from 2-4pm now and I can't imagine not having that couple of hours free to get the housework done! pmsl at the pigs boobs - sorry!
Thomas has a booster that straps onto a chair and has been in that since we started weaning. He loves being sat at the table with us.
Elf Sorry to hear about you having to resit but lol at Evie's singing x Our neighbour gave us one of those red/yellow cars for Thomas a few months ago and he loves it! it wasn't something I would have bought for him but as a freebie I love to see him in there x

Thomas sounds like he is well behind your little ones with the talking there are very few words that he says although the must recent is "Cey" Percy from Thomas the tank engine. I think that he is getting really frustrated at not being able to get his point across and we are having more & more little tantrums
He loves playing in the garden and the weather has been lovely here this week so he has spent most of the time in the garden which is great. we had a little paddling pool out yesterday for the first time and he played really nicely in there with my 3 yr old niece and hardly wet us at all! His fave toy at the min is his toy trains & cars and will spend ages laid on the floor booling (sp?) them up and down!
Fingers crossed to all those ttc (I am planning on joining you as soon as AF makes an appearence, she must know we want to start ttc as it is now 9 weeks since last af! arrgghhh)
god sorry I know I have gone on a bit but I haven't had chance to get on for ages

Hi YF

No AF for 9 weeks . Done a test??

Yes, he's sleeping through again which is bliss. It only took one night of dh going in instead of me and that was it. Re the talking, Johnny really isn't saying that many words tbh. Most of his communication is done with signing or sound effects . Gets that from his dad I think. Hardly any of the words that he does have are pronounced correctly and in full, the rest are approximations which I have managed to figure out.

I mentioned before that he was making a hooting sound like an owl whenever he saw a towel. Well, I think he now does it on purpose for a laugh. So far, as well as the towel/owl thing, we have have had squawking (parrot) for carrot, helicopter sign for doctor, hot sign for cot and a chimp noise for chip. He laughs like a nutter after doing any of these "wrong" sounds which is what makes me think he's doing it on purpose. Perhaps I should have booked him a slot on the Edinburgh Fringe. PMSL he'd probably be funnier than half the "comedians" that show up here anyway!

Teething going on here as well. Johnny's cheeks are red and he is dribbling and having little phases of going off his food. He seems to make up for the lack of food when he is feeling ok though because he shovels it away like there's no tomorrow. I've given him Calpol a couple of times and he looks at me hopefully and signs "more". I suppose he must like the taste.

Those little red/yellow cars are cute. Johnny's cousin has one and he always makes a beeline for it if we are visiting. We are planning (not right now) to get the flowerbeds in our garden paved over partly to make more room for bikes etc in the garden, but mainly to stop next doors cats shitting in our garden. We bought this house from PILs who didn't have any trouble with the cats because they have a dog, but the cats are now wise to the fact that there's no dog here. Perhaps I should set Johnny on them!!

Hope everyone has a good bank holiday weekend. DH only found out last week that his office is closed for the holiday so it was a bit short notice to organise anything much. (It's an English holiday, not a Scottish one, so nobody here ever knows which holidays they are getting and which ones they're not!!)

mb have done 3 tests over various weeks and it was neg each time! (not suprised as we weren't planning on ttc until after this AF anyway!) it is just frustrating cos I am ready now!!!! Its my 3rd wedding anniversary today so I will be amazed if I don't start between now & bedtime!!
pmsl at Johnny the comedian! How lovely xxx