October 05 - First Birthdays

[Yokefleet]

Happy Birthday to Joey!

ELF pops her head into the room and shouts "hello, I'm back!"

Been away to Cornwall for a big holiday - me, Evelyn, DH, my mum and dad, my elder sister and her husband, my younger sister and her boyfriend. Been to Cornwall, had a nice break. Got another week off work so not back til next Monday.

On the topics - potty training, DH & I are not sure whether to tackle to potty training or the going to bed bit first. She's terrible at going to bed. Once she's asleep, she'll sleep 7 til 7, but its getting her to sleep that is the problem - either is lying down with her for a LONG time, or rocking her. Leaving her in her room is not good - even if I pop in every five seconds, she screams and screams til she is sick. Any advice!!

So either sleep or potty training first - either is going to be a joy

Oooh, pregnancy and new babies. I reckon I have got til Jan/Feb before I can even think of trying - I sit my final exams next year (for this stage of studying) and in June I'll be sitting five exams - eeeeek! So I would have to plan a second pregnancy to try and have a nice concentration, not too knackered, able to stay away and not have to pee every five seconds during my exams! We had wanted to wait until Evelyn was four before the second baby was due/born, but I think maybe three.

As for schools - my God I haven't even started thinking yet!!! I dont want my baby to be all grown up!

I had trouble with Mia sleeping, I think it was about a year ago now, to be honest I don't remember, but I used to put her to bed, say goodnight, give her a kiss etc then turn out the light and sit on a stool by her bed but ignore her, I gave her a sort of side view of me, so no eye contact then every day I would move the stool further & further away until I was basically out of the room, it took a while but she always goes down fine now, she fights it until I put her in her cot, but then she accepts it as she know I would never get her up again, I'm very consistent, but that comes with having 4 children I wasn't like that with my first LOL

Bad day yesterday - took Joey to the local castle and he played up all the way round, having a tantrum; then we got him home and he went hurtling off down our drive (its on a steep slope, and quite long) and tripped over himself and smashed his face onto the pavement, skinning the tip of his nose (cue blood everywhere, and he's now got a big blister on the end where the skin came off then stuck back down again IYSWIM, as well as a huge graze all up his nose from tip to bridge), and bumping his head (again!), which has also got a graze in it! I swear he needs a crash helmet!! I've patched him up as well as possible - i didn't think it warranted a trip to Casualty - but he looks awful. Just in time for all his birthday photos in 10 days time!

(was typical, as he was wearing shorts, so my thought even before we left for our trip out was 'i bet he falls over and grazes his knees'. Amazingly, his knees are fine!)

Re the bed thing - we get Joey ready downstairs, do stories etc, then one of us takes him upstairs (at 7.30pm ish) in the dark, plonks him in his cot in his room(again, in the dark - quite an art!) say goodnight, then walk straight out of the room. I worry that its a 'babyish' way of doing it as there's no proper routine in his bedroom, but it works - he knows that our way means bed time and never plays up. HTH.

He also always gets a '5 minute warning' to prepare him for bed - don't know how aware of it he is, but my mum always did this for us!

I have that monday feeling. DH was off last week and we had a holiday at home doing fun stuff. We went to see my parents for a couple of days and I didn't do much housework for most of the week. Now I have to catch up on all the housework that I didn't do..............

Stinky - hope Joey is ok after his tumbling! Sounds nasty.

Re the sleep thing, our bedtime routine has remained virtually unchanged since Johnny was 7 months and he knows exactly what's coming next. He will actually sign "sleep" and trot off towards the bedroom himself at naptime and falls asleep straight away when we put him to bed. Sorry, that doesn't help one bit, does it.

Re the broodiness - yes, me too. No joy this month, I am in mooncup filling mode as I type. My friend is due any day now and I chat to her most days on msn (she is abroad) and although I am really excited for her, I am quite too. Perhaps when I hear about her sleepless nights and the like it might make me think twice.

DLAMIS - yes, the salad spinner obsession is still going strong. As I said before, we were at my parents house. He saw my mum's salad spinner and started saying "saiya, saiya, saiya" until he got a shot. Hers is one that yo uhave to pull a string, so he wasn't able to work it properly, but he still had great fun. He knows where my sister keeps her "saiya" and goes straight to the cupboard and yesterday he spotted SILs "saiya" on top of her cupboard. He has been signing "grandma" and saying "saiya" since we got back from our visit. I asked what colour grandma's salad spinner was and he correctly signed "yellow"

He is now saying a whole heap of new words. Actually he's like a parrot. He knocked over his water and I said "och" and the echo in the room said "och". We were in a cafe the other day and he strung together the following. Pointing at lady, signing "lady". Said "tea" then signed "hot" (she was drinking tea). Signed "bread" (she was eating a sandwich) and then signed "aeroplane". Aeroplane? Where? Mummy doesn't see an aeroplane. He then signed "bread" and "aeroplane" again, and on closer inspection, I saw that the other triangle of the sandwich was standing upright in the plastic holder thing and did indeed look like an aeroplane. Well, I was impressed even if nobody else was.

The weather has taken a turn here and it's freezing today. We went to the supermarket and coming in from the cold and seeing the Christmas stuff made it feel like winter.

Johnny and I picked up a vile cold from toddlers group a fortnight ago and we are still suffering. the poor wee mite has a raging fever this morning and has drunk about a pint of water

This is the first time he's been ill since May when we got the Ribena advice from the nurse. So I suppose that's not bad going.

Took him to the doc and he has an ear infection the wee soul. Doc prescribed anitibiotics and he's dosed to the max with Calpol and Nurofen. He's not very smiley at all, but he loves getting medicine. He signs "more" after every time.

I wish Joey was like that with medicine! He's got a nasty cold now too, which is proving difficult with his scabby nose. Ah well, only a week to go till his birthday

I can always tell when Evelyn is really poorly because when I say "do you want some medicine?" she'll go "yes" between cries. If I just think she might be poorly but not sure, she'll shout NO and bury her head

Hope everybody is well. I went to buy Evelyn a new coat today and am going back to Zara to buy some other clothes I fell in lovw with especially because she ACTUALLY fits in the 2-3 clothes rather than the 12-18 stuff she is wearing at the mo which are too big!!

Hope all the kids are feeling better soon.

MB - Do you think it would be too late to start signing with Thomas? There is a class starting closeby but I don't know if he is too old to start iyswim?

I'm going to have to get some new clothes for Johnny too Elf. Just all of a sudden it's got too cold for all his little short trousers and t shirts so we only have a couple of outfits that fit any more that will do! Tried on his winter coat from last year and it still fits for now but won't do the whole winter. I am going to get some of these to keep his arms and legs warm whilst he is in the back carrier. He would boil if he went in wearing a coat

YF - I don't know if Thomas is too old for signing. My guess would be that no he isn't too old and it certainly won't do him any harm. We didn't do classes. I just bought the Sing and Sign vocab book and did it myself. If they say he's too old for the class then there's nothing to stop you doing it at home yourself.

Poor Johnny still has this awful cold and the ear infection and to top it off today he has had a couple of diarrhoea nappies. He's been a bit burpy and farty so I think it's a tummy bug rather than antibiotic side effects. I wonder what he's going to catch next

Poor Johnny - i hope he feels better soon. Joey is still snotty, but not so bad today.

Gah! Took him to M&T group today - i only really go to meet up with my friend, as its not really my cup of tea - and got back-chatted by a little s**t 5 year old when i politely asked him to go down the slide or move over so Joey and the others could get past him Not sure what he was doing there anyway, he's clearly far too old for the group. I think he was there with his childminder, who looked quite exasperated with him!

I've actually some home contemplating buying Joey his own climbing frame, as he really loves the one at the group. Only problem - it's 400 pounds!

Poor poor Johnny. I called the doc this morning and she said not to give any more antibiotics because of his diarrhoea. I took him out to the shops as he seemed a bit better then he fell over and howled the shop down. Normally he would just get up and get on with it. But, when he was howling, I noticed that his tonsils are like golf balls . He must feel dreadful. The doc managed to squeeze us in but this doc also said that antibiotics wouldn't make a lot of difference and as long as he's drinking then he will be fine.

stinky - there are a couple of older kids at our toddler group too, they appear to be older siblings of some of the toddlers. They've been ok up until now, but sadly I wouldn't be surprised at backchat from a 5 year old. Re the climbing frame, I have heard of several mothers who have purchased a toy that their child seemed to love at someone else's house, or nursery or wherever only to find that the toy was of no interest to them at home, so you mind be best to hang on to your £400 Is it gold plated for that money??

Hi all, I've not been around for a while as we've been moving house, which involved an unplanned 3 week stay with my parents and in-laws. At last we're in the new house but still don't have internet access and this thread's too long to display on my Blackberry - I'm looking forward to the new shorter thread starting soon so I can keep up to date. I'm babysitting for a friend tonight so am taking the opportunity to catch up.

Hi Jane, nice to hear from you, I'm mum to Alice, born 20/10/05 and dd1, who was 4 last April. I'm 34 and work 2 days a week.

Not started potty training now but feel I need to soon as Alice is definitely aware of what she's doing and can go a long time with a dry nappy - she's almost always dry overnight. Also when she's got a dirty nappy she says "Mummy, done a poo poo, sort me out"! But I thought that being in a new house might unsettle her so will maybe wait a couple of weeks. I have given up on the washable nappies though - they had to be so well padded to cope with the enormous wees that had been hung on to for several hours, that the poor girl could hardly move! So I am enjoying having less washing, but feel a bit guilty that I haven't stuck to my principles. Dd1 had 3 attempts at potty training, aged 2, 2.2 and 2.4. I knew she wasn't ready the first couple of times as there was a lot of wee on the floor and none in the potty, then the third time she was dry in 3 days. I used Gina Ford's 'Potty training in one week' book and found it very helpful, though probably it's not right for everyone.

Alice is talking well now, she chatters on constantly, especially as dd1 is now in full time school - usually Alice finds it difficult to get a word in edgeways! Having moved to a new area, I've been going along to a new mum and toddler group the last couple of weeks and everyone's really friendly. I see some of the mums at the school gates too.

Dh and I are debating whether we want to have a 3rd baby. I feel fairly keen and seem to be talking him round to the idea, but on the other hand money, space in the house and childcare would all get a lot more difficult with 3 to look after, so now I'm dithering. When dd1 was Alice's age I was pregnant again, so feel that we need to make a decision soon or baby no. 3 will be too young to keep up with the others (would then have to have a 4th to keep him/her company, and that is definitely too many for me to manage!) Anyway, I've started taking folic acid as I found a pot that goes out of date by the end of October, so will keep you posted...

Hi ponto, nice to 'meet' you.
Hope all the little ones are feeling better, Mia had a very slight cold last week, but it only lasted a couple of days and didn't really bother her.
Mia is dry during the day at home, but she wears a pull-up to bed and when we go out, she still has a few accidents when she is playing, but haven't got to the stage of wearing knickers yet, if she wears them she wees in them or she just takes them off Grrr! LOL!

Howdy all

We had some semi good news this morning - we had an offer on the house! We are trying not to get our hopes up as the estate agency wants to check their mortgage offer to ensure it is all okay, but other than that, sounds good! Might be moving in with parents for a while so we can look for a nice house, eeeek.

RE the sleep, for the past two nights I have managed to get Evelyn to bed in her own cot with no major issues (takes about 45 mins though of reading stories, got to work on that, but getting there!)

Hope all is well with everybody

Argh - i ache everywhere! We took Joey to London zoo yesterday, as an early birthday treat, and he was having one of those days where he refused the pushchair, and wanted to be carried everywhere. By me! Aside from that we had a really good day, Joey loved the giraffes and the reptile house, and he managed really well with the train journey (a good hour and 45 minutes each way!) and the Underground, even if he did keep pointing and saying 'bus'

We're planning a low-key day with just close family for tea and cake for his actual birthday on Wednesday. I can't believe our LO's are going to be 2 already!

(and good news today - i asked my physio when it would be safe to consider trying for a second baby, and he said give it a few months "then you and your husband can have a very nice christmas")

Oh, and fab news on the house sale Elf
Fingers (and toes!) crossed for you! SM x

Can't believe our wee ones will be 2 next month. It's mad eh? Can I just ask a quick question? I know dd is my 4th (including stepds) but is this quite good for her age?

She can count to 3 and knows for example if she has 3 or 2 bits of toast, toys etc. She talks as fluently as her 3.5 year old brother (and her 22 brother if the truth be known ) She dresses herself, well pants and skirts, struggles a bit with her jumpers. Has been dry for about 6 months. (Not my choice, I can tell you, I had to give in when she refused to wear a nappy!)

I have no other children her age to compare with, but I think she is further ahead than her 3 brothers were at age. Not that it matters a damn, by the time she's 5 all the kids will be all doing the same anyway.

I just wondered if she's like this because she is the 4th or despite being the 4th. Poor wee soul I have to check her red book if anyone asks me what she weighed when she was born

HI Ponto and RTL, nice to see you back on the thread.

Elf - good luck with the house sale. I hope things move quickly for you and you're not left high and dry again.

Stinky - that's good news about being able to ttc soon. I'll cross everything for you when the time comes (except my legs of course - still no luck here). Hope you aren't too sore after carrying him round the zoo! Edinburgh zoo is on the side of a huge hill so it's a real work out for me carrying Johnny up there. Some days we cheat and I get the hill top safari.

RTL - hope you can make it to the scottish meet up. It would be great to see you again. Your dd sounds waaaaay ahead of Johnny that's for sure, but he's at the coos tail with everything I think. He is currently trying to string two words together which is quite amusing. He fluked "bye bye daddy" the other day and every time he tries, it's coming out as "bye baddy" or "ba ba dabby" or somthing. It's cute though.

Johnny is almost over his illness but I am now beginning to wonder if there is some milk intolerence thing going on. I stopped giving him cows milk to drink as his nappies were very soft. That seemed to make a difference, but he had some yogurt for the first time in ages the other night and the next day (yesterday) he had three squirty nappies in one afternoon. I have deciced to eliminate all dairy for a week or so to see if it makes a difference. I don't know what I am going to feed the poor child if he is intolerent. No milk and no eggs

We were at toddlers this morning which Johnny loved. He wasn't clingy, but every time he moved on to a new toy, he brought it to show me. EVERY toy he brought me, without exception, had wheels on it He was playing with the dolls house for a while and when he brought something to me I thought "no wheels" but it was a tiny toy hoover - with wheels. He also had a problem with the portion size at snack time. He gobbled his up then signed for "more" three times . The other mums will be thinking that I never feed the poor boy.

New thread started here ladies, in honour of the day