March 06 - At last! Thread no2 - Halfway Through

[Frizombie]

Ok girls here it is!

I agree about the bare bums Uni! I wasn't saying we should adopt it ourselves. You know though there were dizzy billboards all over the place and China has a huge waste problem looming having suddenly gone from largely compostable goods to western packaging and plastic.....maybe I have an international career beckoning when all this comes to a head.

Stairs!!!! Erk.....

ah yes LL be grateful your lovely dd2 is happily not climbing the stairs dd2 here is up them like a shot every chance she gets

Uni that's good going tho, dd2 will only go up, not down, at least your ds has sense!

Interesting about Chinese babies, I'd heard in India they potty train from 9mths, and your posts did remind me a camping trip, where my mates 2 year old squatted down beside the fire we were building and did a perfect 'Mr Whippy' poo, got up and wondered off again, much to the of everyone else, including her mum who had to clean it up

Astro, you know I've not heard from her, did text when she was supposed to be back, but sure she'll get in touch in her own time, I'm off to see her mum midweek, so will no doubt get some info then. The family seemed to have decided amongst themselves that her and her partner would be going to stay with his parents for a few weeks, from what her mum was saying last time I heard anything, but ? they might not have wanted to???

Skibump, could you make some nice sunday lunch for me and post it!

Oh LL the damn viewing didn't show, again....even tho I'd confirmed it with them on the friday.......I shall be confirming an hour before hand with everyone from now on, grrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Sorry to see that we all have middle of the night waking kids at the mo, dd1 got into such a state last night in her dreamstate, she threw up a bit , that woke her and then she calmed down, kept yelling I don't want that??? proabaly not helped by me sat there going 'what don't you want dear, chocolate? cake? crisps?, replied no to all, should have taped it and played back next time she askes

LL, Uni do either of you use SodaCrystals for washing?? waiting for Pruni to answer on enviro thread! was wondering if you can use them on their own for washing, if so at 51p a bag, bargin!!! and good for enviro too!

Do you mean for washing clothes Friz? No, I use Clear Springs liquid (recent convert from Ecover). I do have a good recipe for spray cleaner off a MNer tho.....must make some and do some cleaning eh?

Up til 2am with this bloody bid. Off to counsellor training for some shut eye before I return to the fray!

all I want is an unbroken night or three again, they were SOOOO nice while they lasted. Boy seems to have developed a habit of waking at 3.30ish and wanting a cuddle before he will sleep again.
Mind you I think hes not too well again to day as he woke at 7am, was back in bed for a 2 hour nap at 8am, then fell asleep in pushchair at 12.30 and is still asleep now 90min later. I decided not to take him swimming.I really don't want him too ill to go to CM tomorrow. fingers crossed he will sleep it off and bounce back.

Thx for the tip Friz - I had a look at the eco thread and I've ordered some soapnuts - they seem to be getting a good write up.

Re stairs. Yep, when hand walking, ds aims straight for them - and believes he can step off the top and land perfectly. Luckily STILL can't crawl, so no chance of him reaching them on his own (round too many corners to roll there ) I'm playing on the stairs with him as much as poss to try to get him used to doing it safely, but I guess stair gate is really the only option...

Uni, hope you get some sleep soon. Even if they only wke for a short time, it makes soooo much difference

LL interesting thoughts on nappies etc - I expect he'll be doing the 'naked in the garden' thing this summer, so I think I'll get a potty and let him try then. It will be interesting to see... PS what sort of contracts are you writing bids for? Feel free to ignore that

Skibump, it's a funding bid for what is ultimately government money to help the UK hit it's recycling targets. I still haven't finished it either - erk!

A friend told me today that she has bought a see through potty which is meant to help potty training as they can see what they are doing!

Not sure I want to see that clearly myself

Recycling bid sounds interesting. I did a bit of work in that area when I was a consultant - in a previous life. I'm well out of date now though. How do I get my council to improve their recycling facilites? There is nowhere that does plastic within about 20 miles!

boys CM has a clear potty, was a touch unsettling to see all as twas carried to loo after other mindee had done a good un, I did cheer as asked tho as hes new to potty training apparently.

Boy back in bed, dh off to cricket nets. I missed running as boy needed early night. his temp has dropped back to normal and hes still eating normally so I'm hoping its just a cold.

soda crytels v soap, no idea. guilty of usoing regular no bio here, didn;t get on with ecover when I tried it and not yet tried soap nuts tho I intend to at some point.

Uni, glad that the boy is improving slowly. You'll get used to the potty cheering when it's your turn! I would really recommend Clear Springs laundry liquid - it won ethical product of the year last year and gets my nappies white (this is a first!).

Skibump, what consultancy work did you used to do then? With your council just keep perstering but plastics recycling is very patchy. My sis lives in Scotland and they have great recycling but no plastics at all so every time she comes south she brings bin bags full of milk bottles from her garage!

DP and I finished the bid at 2.30am, it's a good job he stepped in to sort out importing excel sheets etc. as I would have thrown the laptop out the window if not! I had to eat chocolate too so may have regained some of my 10lb weight loss. It ended up 183 pages so glad that it wasn't me printing, binding and running it to Banbury this morning!We're having a day off today - Tilly at Grandma's, Kiah and DP in bed, me sipping lemsip and munching toast and marmite.....

Friz, on its way. Roast pork belly with roast root veg and apple sauce. Next week chicken casserole - does anyone know when I can go back to putting wine in the casseroles and still serve it to ds? (I love cooking :-)

LL my professional background is supply chain stuff, so I got involved with some whole of life things - sourcing for recyclability etc and also developing return chains ie so that new parts can be sent out and 'broken' ones, tools etc can be returned and mended/relabelled(sp?)/reused. Did you know there's plant equipment that can break down plastics and make building materials? A colleague was trying to sort out getting the olympic village etc made out of this (think that was a bit far fetched tho, don't think he got v far!)

AAARGH, a very frustrating computer session as the dcs are determined I will have NO PEACE!!!

Skibump, I give my kids wine in casseroles from dot...as long as you cook it for a bit, the alcohol would have cooked off, so no harm as far as I can see

happy wednesday everyone - dd at nuresery in the morning, so its my ds day. Poor lad is full of cold and teeth, so needs his mummy lots

Aww Astro, sorry boy is poorly hope you two gets lots of special time together tomorrow!

Thanks for that yummy food ski bump virtual anyway, sigh......

LL, where stocks the clearsprings stuff then?? yes I did mean for washing clothes!

Uni how's boy today, did he make it to cm's?

We've just developed lots of local plastic re-cycling at centralized points, after most of the town complaining, when we suddenly got bags for paper, bags for cardboard n egg boxes, box for glass and box for cans, but now't for stuffing tetra pak or plastic!!! they've still not covered tetra pak, but its a start! (Mums council are great and have bins for everything!)

Have had a taste of proper out of the home working mum life the last two days and am in shock particularly as I had to point out to dh that hang on a mo, I was working too, all be it temp whilst the house is turned around, but I've still been doing all the home stuff
I've spent the past two days, kicking 28 bags of crap onto the patio of the house I look after.....yest I managed two coats of paint onto the kitchen walls, and today I managed to clean the whole kitchen and understairs cupboard! nothing else till friday now, as no bbsitters available for dd2 until then!! have 2.5 hrs to clean living room, stiars, 2 bedrooms n 2 bathrooms, phew! oh and lob all the rubbish into a skip, looking forward to that, why did I decide I'd have the cleaning money this time round, instead of getting the cleaners in

LL my one tip to you is get a tennant with ocd, so they clean the place lots! and apologies to anyone with ocd, its a joke.

Friz LOL as one of our tenants does have ocd!!! Hey how about you come north in a couple of weeks and help us pack, clean and move now you've got the practise in??

Well, house of snot here and sad to hear of all our poorly babies - let hope they perk up for March and birthdays!

Big news here is Kiah is cutting a tooth at last! You can't see white yet but the gum is definately splitting....will soon be having my first bfing with teeth experience....

Yay for tooth and no to more packing and moving!! had virtually enough of that, fancy that re the tennant tho! how useful

thanks for asking, we did get to CM and he was fine with her both mornings. Right now hes sat in high chair stuffing toast into his mouth and occasionaly braking off to declaim in a most assured manner that " bedore af af mador" any one wiser than I like to try and translate. Ok now toast has been thown over board, prehaps hes had enough.

Work, well it was never going to be intersting but at least I'm now started on the meat of the project not just faffing about doing prep for it.

Hurrah, had a sleep through ( sort of) last night.

Plastic recycling. Very few councils have managed to find a buyer for mixed plastic , with out one its not ecconomic to collect domeestic plastic. Does anyone recycle tetra pak, I though the laminate construction made them un recyclable? Here we can put most plastic in teh recycling bin but not glass as stuff is sorted by hand and glass is to dangerous to have mixed in in that setting.

Uni, your boy sounds much brighter -I think he was saying "I'm bored of this soggy toast now and amgoing to throw it on the floor because I know you like nothing better than squashed toast on your slipper"....well that's what Kiah says anyhow.

Tetrapak - there are two mills that recycle tetrapak in the UK and you can post your cartons to them if you like. I did this when there was a freepost offer but now it costs too much so we try to buy things in plastic bottles if we can. Our new house has a recycling round and I am overly excited about this fact.

in sydney we had recycling for everything - tetra, tin, glass, papers, all plastics etc.

Here we have glass, tins and 1,2,3 plastics, plus some papers only. Kids and I eat a lot of yoghurt during the day, and DH frequently comes home to a pile of yoghurt pots all stacked neatly by the sink. I juat can't bring myself to throw them in the bin, so DH does it for me. For a while I was saving them for...? But the pile under the sink got too big. If anyone ever need some yoghurt pots give me a shout!

Anyone elses DC very sensitive to the cold? DS can stand about 1/2 hour out in it, then starts to cry inconsolably until we go home. I'm not sure its cold, but can't think what else.

So what plans are afoot for 1st birthdays?

I never knew tetra was that difficult to recycle, after all its sold as a recyclable item isn't it? (remember the tree advert)

Sorry Astro, but I'm not a taker for your yoghurt pots, wonder what can be done about those, should we all start a campaign n send them back to the manufacturers??

Uni, not a clue what boy was saying think LL's description might have been right tho, dd2 has taken to dddddddddadadadadddddadadada followed by raspberries all day today maybe she's saying Daddy farts?

Heard off cousin today, she's doing ok as can be, is looking for a job (not very hard at mo, as not totally feeling upto it) has to move house end of month, as whilst away place they were renting was sold!! nice....luckily they're getting their money back (paid in advance) and have found somewhere in the next town over, so her partner can start his Uni course coming Sept ok. Will try to get down to see them soon, without kids, just need to sort mum to bbsit whilst we go.

lol at 'daddy farts' cos ds says that too!

more lol at daddy farts, we get "daddys a slap head" some days , lots of daaadadadadada and then slaps daddys forehead. Makes me laugh a lot as boy and daddy are BOTH slap heads.

hes asleep again! nap 2. clearly having some one to play late morning, lunch and then ryhme time has all been more socialbility than a lad can take with out a nice restorative sleep.

Any more ideas for what to do with savoy cabbage? have 2 from veggie box. I'm going to try annabel carmels " cabbage surprise" recipe on the lad for tea. DH and I will have it braised with garlic.
Boy seem impervious to the cold, I can't get him to keep his hands in his cosy toes OR in mittens. MAybe devonms not as cold as your place tho. No snow here, sunshine and showers all day.

Uni, try this with the cabbage. chop into 4 (or 6 or 8 depending on size) brown in lots of butter on each of the cut sides in a large saute pan, then add boiling water about 1/2 way up the cabbage cover & simmer until tender. There should be a lovely buttery sauce, add cream or parmisan cheese if you like. This is also lovely with fennel or with cabbage & fennel (thx Nigel Slater!) Not seen Annabel Carmel () is it recommended?

Ds doesn't seem to mind the cold here, but in France over xmas we got him a sledge and he adopted a 'my parents are mad' face every time we tried to take him out in it Actual sledging lasted 1 run before he DEMANDED to go home

mmmm interesting way of cooking a cabbage skibump, may well try that one soon
Uni dd1 never kept her mittens on, had to string them so we didn't keep loosing them dd2 happily sits in hers oddly?

dh has just informed me that dd2's ddadadadada followed by raspberries, is not he farts, its that dadadada blows raspberries on my tummy and I want one now!

We got snow today took dd1 and her mate out on the sledge down the close, they loved it also did small snowman in garden this afternoon, am we snuck out to local soft play and got it virtually to ourselves as due to snow lots of people stayed home, hurrah!

spent the afternoon playing in the snow with dd, while a friend had ds at her place (he was asleep, so worked out well). Lovely! DD loved it (so did I!) - we made a snow man/tallish lump of snow with two raisins stuck on it.

Uni, I have a packet of special crispy noodles that go together with cabbage and make the most wonderful crispy crunchy salad. They are from Aust and I'll post you some tomorrow if you think your cabbage will last a few more days. You need soy sauce and brown sugar for the dressing, some sesame seeds, slivered almonds, sugar snaps, cabbage and the noodles...um...maybe fish sauce too, and lime...will check. Let me know if you want some. katisrael at gmail dot com

evening friz