March 2013 - by the time we finish this one we'll be shopping for elf outfits. Eek!

[ecofreckle]

Here we go again then ladies. Plenty more shiny new space to fill up with ramblings :-) Link to last thread

Uh oh stormy has a bug hit the household. Poor fartypants. Give water in a syringe, keep buckets, muslins and babywipes to hand.

plonky I feel your pain clarks is pricey and this is why ds has only 1 pair of shoes. Speaking of shoes a shopping trip is needed.

worse a mouse ran up your arm. I am scared of all creepy crawlies. I think anytime from 18 months naps can diminish. The thought of this scares. I look forward to those naps so I can recharge my batteries.

stormy dm was surprised I had the courage to put a book on top of the spider. Dh did the clean up and the spider was alive still, just squashed.

I wanted to thank you all for letting me and eco watch gbbo before finding out who won. I am going to miss it.

Ds is fighting his sleep again. I am so getting my revenge when he is a teenager and wanting to sleep til lunchtime.

Nap stopping age can be rather variable, I think. I'd anticipate most dropping naps entirety by three and possibly a lot earlier. Not an expert though! Worse is she still having two naps, or just one these days? And yay for extra tall staircases! I'd suggest properly screwed in rather than pressure fit, as she's a climber and the pressure fit ones can loosen a bit (especially when you keep kicking the damn thing by accident).

I'm currently in the porch having a fag, and there's a little T. duellica by the ceiling, and I'm not freaking out at all. Would have done once upon a time though. When we were little I used to send my brother to do Spider Patrol in my room before bed, and as recently as a few years ago I'd be reduced to a gibbering wreck watching the buggers while waiting for him to finish work and pop over to shift them (if anyone was wondering why I suggested he buy a house so close to mine, now you know ). But too many years of living with fellow arachnophobes... It got ridiculous. Every house needs a designated spider remover, and I eventually realised no one else was planning to grow a pair. So I did (while cursing my auntie for freaking out in front of me and sparking my arachnophobia in the first place). So long as they're on a flat surface and not too high up I can get them. Any on the ceiling are still left for my brother, but there aren't many these days, thanks to the little cat.

I'm the spider liberator in this house. I try not to maim or kill, just a glass and a piece of card to pop them outside. But I feel bad if I step on a snail. Dh goes nuts at creepy crawlies and bats them with old football programmes (so at least they do have their occasional use).

Worse although I do like Stormy's cabin door style stair gate arrangement suggestion, I had a moment earlier in which I envisaged the Worselet hoisted herself up on the lower one and trying to climb the top one too. You've already said she's showing DH's ADHD style tendencies, coupled with budding mountaineering prowess. Sounds like too much temptation for a little person!

Yummy do you know how hard it is to keep the GBBO outcome a secret? Well I'll tell you. VERY! I'm very pleased the winner won. I like their outlook. And accent.

Lesson learned re. Clarks. Lovely pair of shoes, should be perfect for autumn, and he's got wellies for park walks anyway. It's nursery photos here tomorrow and I plan on sending him in looking awesome. I might even let him pick his outfit...

Morning all. We got through the night with no further sick, although quite a few episodes of wake up and whinge a bit. Fartypants is on her second digestive biscuit of the day. So far so good. Bit worried about how naptime milk will go though.

Hi all - some of you may be aware that its baby loss awareness week this week. The week ends with a global wave of light, the idea being that you simply light a candle at 7pm on 15 October and leave it burning for at least one hour to remeber all babies that have died during pregnancy, at, during or after birth. More info can be found here: www.uk-sands.org/news/news-release/2014-10-08/baby-loss-awareness-week-9-15-october-2014-time-remembrance-anyone#sthash.dGLE9k8K.dpuf. This is in my diary every year of course celebrating the life of my precious DD1 but thought many of us now have Arlo to remember as well as many other special babies to celebrate and might like to participate.

That's a lovely idea rainbow, thank you for alerting me to it. We will light a candle and spare a thought for DD1 and Arlo alike.

Stormy glad to hear she's kept the biscuits down. Personally I'd eschew milk for the next 24 hours at least as a precautionary measure. It's the season for D&V bugs and my memories from our first ever infant D&V horror still play in my mind. Milk definitely exacerbated it. How are you and the man?

Dunno about the man (he's not due here until noon) but I'm fine. And Fartypants seems fine, definitely not got the dire rear if this morning's rabbit poo is anything to go by.I suspect she's a bit dehydrated from skipping last night's milk. Naptime in twenty minutes. Hmm.

Will add a candle to today's shopping list. Must check fb too, an acquaintance is overdue and being induced today, and I'm anxiously waiting for good news.

Thank you for letting us know rainbow. Will be thinking of rainbow baby, Arlo and all the beautiful babies.

stormy looks like things are under control in the vomit department.

I am doing an application form and I am stuck. I can't seem to put down on paper the skills and knowledge I have from the last 6 years. I will look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.

Now it is time for coffee. I have just over an hour left before dh and ds come home.

I am totally going to sound like one of those dreadful competitive mothers, but I don't care. I just got back from visiting my mum. Fartypants trotted over with a book, an ABC one, and proceeded to name most of the letters while turning the pages. And she knows the numbers one to ten. I know it's just parroting and she doesn't really understand yet, but still. I'm a bit staggered.

That's bloody impressive Stormy. And to think, I was impressed at DS alerting me to the toast he was throwing on the floor at lunch yesterday when he repeatedly said 'toes! toes!' I read somewhere that memory capacity at this age should be about a day or two's events, so Fartypants is ahead of the curve I'd say.

Yummy applying for anything interesting? I really struggled with the uni application form last week. It must have taken me 2 days of thinking about it before I was finally able to spend half a day just to fill it out! And now I keep thinking of far better ways of phrasing my answers.

You've got a little chatterbox on your hands there, stormy. DS counts "un", "oo", "ee" up the stairs, but I blame that on the Tombliboos.

worse stop trying to make me POAS just because you want a baby-bellied buddy I convinced myself to eat two biscuits in bed this morning and as soon as I got up, the nausea eased off. I think it's my uterus' way of telling me I shouldn't have the coil and should have a baby instead

rainbow I'll be lighting a candle. What a lovely idea.

yummy an application? What's it for, what's it for? nosy

No nap here today, but we were very busy having our teeth checked and going to Ikea. I only went to the dentist for DS because every single time I've gone, he's said "ah yes, Something, no problems here...can you pay now?" and I really resent paying £20 for that privilege, then he tells me that DS is too young to need to be checked so he'll do that next year. Pfft!

I'm excited! I'm sure most of you know that I'm a keen writer (hence my whole reason for going to Edinburgh last year), and last week at the school I work at, a writer came in to do a workshop in the evening and I got chatting to him, then emailed the company he works for to express my interest. Tonight, I got an email back saying that they'd had a chat about me and the writer will be talking to the school leaders to see how I can get involved in the project. Eeee!

I'm also excited because last night, DP, DS and I went to Tesco to purchase paints, paper, bowls, rollers, etc, so who knows what colourful, fun state my house will be in when I get home!

This evening I'm going to do a spot of research to see if I can fill out applications too. Apparently Hull College have a) a lot of courses that are free on income support and B) childcare facilities. Oh, the possibilities!

Go on, something, POAS! You know you want to.

We've just been watching a musical countdown thingy, top forty most popular online rock or something like that. In the final nine, I asked Fartypants, "What number is this?" while pointing at the telly, where it said 'No. 9' or whichever. Only one she didn't get was five. Doesn't seem to like five. Always skips it on the stairs too. I'll shut up and stop boasting now.

Bloody hell Stormy that's impressive. We have toooo, toooo, toooo in our counting repertoire!

Yummy good luck with the application, whatever it may be for!

Something that's exciting, finding a way to wedge your way back into writing! Brilliant news.

Rainbow what a lovely idea, I'm in. Sands is such a fantastic charity that provides so much in the way training, resources and support to maternity units so I'm all in support of them.

We've all finished early today so I picked DD up at 3.45 and we've had a family tea and cream cake session while watching the review of the GBBO contestants from 2013! Good times.

Worse there was definitely something I wanted to say to you today but I've no idea what it was and can't scroll back on my phone. Oops.

In other news DD slept until 8am this morning instead of her usual 6am and is currently in fine form running around the house clutching a potato telling us no, NO mummy daddy.

It's nothing exciting Still social work but a position has opened up in a children's centre. It's full time though. I would prefer a job in a school but nothing has come up in our area yet.

stormy fartypants is clever. I think she might be excellent at exams with a memory like hers. Ds likes saying 3.

betty I forgot to say power to you and all your nhs colleagues. I was in support of yesterdays strike. My friend who works in the nhs feels there wasn't enough tv coverage of the strike.

Stormy you should be proud, that's quite something! I think you should consider renaming fartypants, smartypants and registering her on the gifted and talented forum. Although you might have to rescind your membership of the feminist forum to do so. I'm not sure the two are quite compatible

The toddle would be impressed if she had enough English to express it, but she doesn't, so I imagine she'd just settle for prodding fartypants in the eye. I am increasingly of the opinion she is going to be very beautiful and very dim.... with mountaineering tendencies. Perhaps I should aim to get her on a reality TV show following female explorers... or something. I'm joking of course. You hope

Rainbow I will of course light a candle, and share a moment with everyone else on here to remember your dd1 and Arlo. Both have touched all of our hearts, and will be remembered.

Something ah well, if you aren't joining me on the football belly front I'll just retire, alone, to my corner, and experiment with reaching my toes. It's getting increasingly difficult. On which note I just got a text, from nice Mr personal trainer man inviting me to a free circuits session this weekend. I'm assuming this is a text to entire phone book type of text, and not a personal one, otherwise... wtaf? I look like a weeble. Circuits are so far out of my reach as to be a laughable proposition.

And get writing woman. You know you want to, and you know you should. The world will be a poorer place if you don't can we all have a sneak preview

Yummy good luck with the application. My advice, sell yourself. Did you know that in all job applications men consistently over sell themselves, and women consistently undersell. It's like we are programmed to be modest. Don't be modest.

Exhausted today. DH is now officially on sabbatical, which it turns out means he is working every day in London, but on his own projects, so not being paid for it. So much for being around more to help . The toddle thank god was a sweetheart today, but a hyper active mountaineering sweetheart. I've given up on trying to make a meal. Turn my back for a second and she's up on a kitchen chair and half way onto the table. The playpen is no challenge, and the high chair child's play. She can get out of the straps in a nano second. Anyone need a small Houdini on loan? One with a lovely smile, fluent in doidy talk

Worse she'd love our garden, we'll have her. It would keep her occupied for a few minutes That sounds pretty hardcore. Interesting how these small folk are already showing areas of expertise. We have no interest in numbers whatsoever. We like dancing though. And putting fingers up noses anyone's will do We also like taking mouth fulls of food, chewing it and then letting it slowly ooze back out of our mouth down into the pelican bib. Not sure what I should enrol her for! Your photo is lovely by the way. Remind us how many weeks you are now.

Something great to hear your news. I hope the school are supportive. What changing rooms style creation did you find when you got back? Rag rolling, stencils, marble effect?

Plonky what's the deal with your uni course? When do you hear? When would you start? Full time or part time? I can't remember And is dh out of dog house? If so I hope he redeemed himself appropriately.

Yummy I agree with worse: sing your own praises. That's what they want to hear. Sound passionate and skillful. And good luck!

Rainbow thank you for your link. I love our group. I like to hope we'll all be here this time next year and that the annual candles will be a habit for us all. Also, with regards breastfeeding, when I offer milk now by saying 'would you like some milk?' she looks and smiles but carries on playing. I have to lift my top and show her the real deal and then she can't resist Do you think this is the start of the end? and that moron in the mirror today really riled me, what an idiot

Betty thanks for alerting me to the additional bake off programme. I shall search it out. How is your toe? And dh.....how are things? Is he stepping up?

Stormy I trust you and the man are still well and that farty was just puking at the realisation she is an actual genius Did the nap milk stay put?

Our guests have gone. I've been to doc again today. When I saw him and he diagnosed pnd he told me to see him again in three weeks. I failed to book an appointment and so he rang me at home last week to encourage me to see him. Very proactive. And he gave me a flu jab whilst I was there too. Service. I'm with you yummy. The health service do an amazing job in extremely difficult circumstances. GO BETTY!

I don't really have much to report. I'm doing an hour trip tomorrow to visit a friends new baby. I'd have done that sort of journey at the drop of a hat a few months ago just because I fancied fish and chips at a certain seaside or because there was an orchid if flower somewhere. It's a bit scary these days. What about the routine?? What about the poor little baby who hates the car? Silly me. I'm taking the travel cot so she can nap there and so I can get some cuddle time.

Been working today which feels good. There's a nice glass of white and some cream cake based goodness waiting downstairs for me so I'd best get out of Bath. Hellos to everyone.

Where did you go shattered? Thread to shattered! Are you receiving us? How are you? What's going down with you?

Will post properly and less selfcentredly tomorrow on the computer when I can see posts at the same time. Hate the way you can't see the thread when posting on the app.

Smartypants is just showing off now. Woke up at half nine screaming and inconsolable, to the point I had to bring her downstairs to calm down. The TV had been left on Fox for Family Guy. It took us a little while to work out why she was pointing at the TV and saying fuck over and over. She recognised the word "fox" in the logo in the corner of the screen. It's identifying a picture rather than reading, but even so. Showing off!

We can never take her anywhere public where that word might be written, can we? At least until her pronunciation improves.

eco DD sometimes ignores offers of milk but can never resist if I don't have my top on. Equally sometimes she demands "boobie boobie"at awkward times like in the middle of dinner so we have started gently teaching some breastfeeding manners like waiting till mummy has had her food. We have a newborn cousin who gets fed whenever she demands so DD is copying I think! The occasional disinterest is probably part of longer term weaning but I also think that at this age they get so engrossed in other stuff. At the moment I can't see any signs of real weaning - it feels like DD has her own separate relationship with my breasts sometimes! And yes to the moron in the mirror - there are no words to describe that level of idiocy.

stormy we have the same problem with the word fox!

Morning all. Today is my last day on leave while ds is at nursery.

I am thinking to get ds a little kitchen for Christmas. Nursery worker said he enjoys playing in the home corner and this morning he ran to it when I dropped him off. Despite my dm saying "it's for girls" me and dh would like to get him one. Any recommendations?

plonky Is uni for photography course? What about the full time job you was eyeing up? Is it possible to do the uni course in the evenings?

eco I am with you on routines vs long journeys. People without small children do not understand. Last weekend we did a trip to the other side of London, ds was screaming and trying to undo the car seat belt. We stopped the car and got him out he tried to climb to the front to get to me. I was the driver so we did the last 10min of our journey on dm's lap. Enjoy the newborn snuggles.

stormy that made me laugh. Hope you don't see that word in public.

I am off to check out worse photo.

yummy we bought DS a kitchen the other night from Tesco. It was £15 and "electronic". Very hi-tech If kitchens were just for girls, we'd starve in this house. DP is the chef and I think your job application does sound exciting! Everything crossed for you.

eco we drove for 1.5 hours to Telford and 1.5 back on Sunday. I recommend lots of snacks. He only napped for the last 20 minutes and when we got there he was only interested in running up and down stairs instead of nicely sitting to eat his carvery. I didn't arrive home to any chaos last night as they went to see fil instead, but seeing as how they're both too snotty for swimming tonight, I'll make sure to upload photos of the potential masterpieces later!

Well, I have 40 minutes until I need to leave for work and the toddle is sleeping. Cuppa and feet up time.

yummy we have got DD a wooden kitchen from ASDA for christmas thats gender neutral - IKEA do a great one too. No toy is just for one gender at this age!

Eco how did you/DD fare on the long journey? We've done a hell of a lot of them the last month. Our coping mechanism is to try to time it with DS's naptime (not always possible) and bring lots of snacks. I've also got some toddler tv shows loaded onto my phone, so if we're stuck in traffic etc I just pass it over to DS with the guided access turned on so he can't call 0800 numbers.

Worse your description of DD made me giggle. I don't think she's a tim-nice-but-dim because it sounds like anyone who's the product of you and DH would be pretty smart. And good looks go a long way in this world - sad but true. DS hasn't yet started counting either though, and he's rather good looking too biased

Yummy I agree, toys at this age are definitely not gender specific. If he wants a kitchen then that's a cracking Christmas present. Did I misread your post, or do you mean that DS was out of his car seat and on DM's lap?

The uni application was for a project officer job, not a course. I wish it was for a course! The closing date's not until Monday so I won't hear for awhile - and even if I do I doubt it'll be good news! I think it's one of those jobs that gets hundreds of applicants. In that case our plan would be to start looking at houses to buy in November (EEK!) with a view to setting up the photography business in earnest once we're all settled in. eco the job is full time, which is something that's slightly holding me back. I love the sound of this job, and I know I'd be good at it, but am I ready to leave DS full time? On the other hand, would it be good for all of us? Hmm. Not sure. But at least I have the illusion of options!

Speaking of, can I get opinions on these two properties please? They're quite high on our list...
house 1
and number 2

House one looks good, except the kitchen's too small for my liking, and the layout of the bathroom is frankly weird. In all other respects it looks excellent though - enough space, got a garden, double glazed and central heated, room for DC2 when the time comes. But then, you could say the same about house two. I prefer the first though, it looks like it's just been renovated very neutrally, whereas with house two you're probably going to have a fair bit of redecorating to contend with, including installing a new bath, because that one's ridiculous in such a small bathroom!

I can think of one potential toy that's gender specific - playing wee-bombs with water balloons. Girl children are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to filling them. And even then a jug would solve the problem. Get the kitchen and sod what your mother thinks, yummy.

eco we're very familiar with food-dribbling as a hobby here. Fartypants just loves to shove far too much food in her mouth at once and then blow a raspberry. With solids this is just messy. With sloppier food it is revolting. And yet they find it so fun. Why?!

I've only just this morning worked out what the moron in the mirror referred to. I only saw the headline, but. There are no words for such bloody stupidity. If ever there was a case for making people pass a test before they're allowed to breed...

Betty your potato tale reminded me of The Truth (Discworld number 25). One of the bad guys in it has a potato for religious reasons. He can't remember much about his childhood religion, but he knew he'd be safe when he died so long as he had his potato.

Something your dentist is talking rubbish. They should have checkups as soon as they have teeth. Whether DS will agree to open his mouth is another matter though. We're there again at the end of the month. Still pondering whether to let Fartypants witness a scale and polish. It may put her off dentists for life.

Worse I had another great idea - manacles! Chaining 'em to a wall doesn't count as child abuse if you leave a bowl of water and some biscuits in range, right? And I bet you anything the worselet isn't dim in the least. She's just not expressing an unusually early interest in letters and numbers. So long as she's worked them out within the next five years it's all good.

Candle bought, and I spotted a chalkboard and chalks set in the poundshop while I was there. Fartypants is currently having a good scribble with the man. Not writing any letters yet though. The man did some googling last night, typical abilities at various ages, and got quite excited by how much she can do that not all kids her age can. I felt a bit mean showing him the previous page, showing abilities that pretty much all children have mastered by 13, or 15, or 18 months, not all of which she's yet grasped. Still, nice that he's proud.

Right, I need a very speedy bath before teatime. And the man needs to start cooking. And the child is teething and grumpy and not going to want to be left to play alone. This could get shouty...

plonky I love both houses to be honest and can't choose. I am excited for you. Roll on November. If you get the job would it not put you in a better position to get a mortgage. That is my only motivation to go back full time. Yes you did read the post right. We had to take desperate measures as ds was inconsolable. I was supposed to drop mum off first but she ended up coming home with me.

I think I need to move up north. My 2 bed flat is double the cost of the houses. Prices are ridiculous down south.

I am so going to ignore dm's comment and get ds the kitchen. Is anyone else excited when you get dc new toys?

something I forgot to congratulate you. It is very exciting. I believe everything happens for a reason. I hope you get to live your dream of writing and see your name in lights.

stormy I was wondering if it was teething or a ww. We are going through the same stage as you.

Right I'm on phone and have a memory like a sieve so I'll have to pop back later to fill in the gaps but....

Yummy, we have the ikea kitchen, as does my Godson. It's completely gender neutral, very lovely and played with every single day. I would highly recommend it. Plus you can adjust the height as they grow.

Plonky I prefer the inside of house two I think, mostly because of the added kitchen and bathroom space, but the garden looks better in house one. Do you have a gut feeling. What are the areas like? Have you looked round either?

Right, that's all I can recall. Back later once the dinner is done and I've had my strop (DH promised he'd be home by 5.30 so I could definitely cook for then, he hasn't left yet and works 25 mins away and now DD is hungry )