November 2012 - silence used to be golden. Now it is worrying

[Passmethecrisps]

Just so we all feel at home

I quite like Lidl, especially the German ones some of which are quite big. They only accept cash though in German Lidls which is a proper PITA. I am really fussy about meat though. The rest of their stuff is good.

Loving the aldi love. I'm back cooking and it's so good. Today I made lemon drizzle cake by request of L who bought me blue flour and a lemon and asked to make it! Posh cottage pie ( porcini mushrooms and port!) and a fab hairy bikers jalfrezi!

All the batch cooking is terribly impressive. We are also massive aldi fans.

Today we have viewed a house and done some shopping. P is now in bed mumping while DH and I eat dim sum (I am eating jt and he is watching as he doesn't actually like it but feel guilty) and watch 24

A month before DD1's 4y birthday we go to a 4y birthday party which starts at 6pm, kids are fed perrier water or alcohol free champagne to drink, leave with party bags full of make up samples and fake tatoos.

Am determined to do the opposite and have a very childish 4yo party for DD1.

Omg GG!!

I don't get why people don't let children just be children. They aren't little for long as it is. Unfortunately my DD1 would probably have loved that party. She loves a glittery tattoo!

Did I mention that p is currently sporting a glittery 'tattoo'?

I despise it but she won't let me touch it. If I try to scrub or pick it off she yells "NOT PICK OFFFF MY TAAAATTTOOOOOOOOO"

yesterday she declared "mummy need a dragonfly like mine. Just dere"

When we were lunching at a local country estate cafe - a van pulled up called 'Pink princess pamper parties' and lo 15 four year olds dressed like bad transvestites all bling and shit makeup rocked up. Very alienating - presumably no boy chums attended?

We went to St Andrews today then to a local snowdrop garden - fab day.

Morning,
I went to bed at 7.30last night and only just woke up. I was utterly exhausted and O spent the night with my parents. I feel totally drained, both mentally and physically. Therapy is going well, still going weekly and it really brings up all kind of emotions and thoughts. I need to go gluten free too as have some health problems, not looking forward to it tbh.

O is in a cute phase,she sings all the time. She also gets angry of me talking in English, has anyone experienced this? Hungarian is the dominant language obviously but now shouts at me when I go and pick her up at nursery and says, no, no, no. I ignore her and keep talking in English and she soon settles. Her understanding and speech are perfect in both languages but she is showing preferences already.

Oh, and can I please recommend a book? She loves it and we have so much fun:

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0811879542?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

My plan for today is to sort out as much as possible and go shopping for gluten free things before picking O up at lunchtime. The cleaner is coming at 8 too, my monthly well worth treat.

Hope the sleep was restorative Lily and you are ok re the gluten free?

That would inspire the same reaction in me GG. They are only little for such a short time! Was all too aware if that fact y'day when I took DD with me to meet my friend's new baby - the baby weighed what DD did and was absolutely tiny. Sniff. I looked at my big girl and wondered where the hell the last 4 years had gone.

We had a lovely spring like day walking in the sunshine and playing on bikes until DD2's little biking accident.

I think they might both be in bed by 9 though from all the excitement

I went to meet my friend's 1 week old on saturday. Made my little A seem big and he's only 6 weeks tomorrow.

Had a lovely weekend with various family and friends. Now waiting in for gas man to sort out taking us off the meter. He is supposed to come between 8am and 1pm. He has 6 minutes. Something tells me he won't be coming again.

Hiiiiii everyone! hope everyone had a good weekend :) On saturday we took the dogs out (four dogs and a toddler, madness I tell you!) and had a nice long walk, which e managed without his pushchair. We tried to catch one of the steam trains but the one we had planned to get to the tracks for came early, and the next was a diesel so not as exciting. So, we went to the steam train station and found that they are rather lovely and DP was allowed to take E down to stand right next to the trains and even go in the 'cockpit' or whatever you call it. Only he had to go with the driver and he didn't want to do that, he wanted me (Who was in the car with the bloody dogs)

pikz he is lovely indeed :) he's doing really well, he's getting quite big now though so when he's in puppy mode you don't half know to it! I am finding him needing a few more time outs than he did but then the same can be said of our toddlers I suppose, tiny puppies are like babies, and bigger puppies are like toddlers

your saturday sounded nice grace!

am a bit shocked at the sleeping lifeguard gg that's terrible! Hope your finger heals soon

lemon drizzle cake sounds lush pikz, E just about holds his attention for very basic cookies so I don't think i'd get much help with a lemon drizzle cake plus i'd probably do it wrong!

was the house you viewed nice pass?

gg that sounds like a very grown up birthday party, too grown up for me even, in fact! :P

lily hugs, hope the health problems are manageable ones? Hope going gluten free goes well for you too

eliza he can't be 6 weeks already!!! you only had him like, yesterday!!!

I refuse to admit I have less than 14 weeks left.

Who is next? Is it you stunt?

Does anyone have any good resources for counting? J can count up to 29 but then he gets confused with the bigger numbers. I have Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever which is quite good but aimed at older children.

STUNT (can't find asterisk to bold you on new computer) how about a traditional abacus? One with nice colours?

Or are you talking about recognising the actual numbers?

He's okay up to 29 but then we get 'twenty-ten', 'twenty-eleven'!

Gosh it's not been that long since DD1 has stopped saying twenty eleven! She's really into counting at the moment and counts when we're in the car. Just talking about numbers and learning about minutes and the time has helped her.

On the way home from school run DD1 announced she could count up to eleventy eight! I thought we were doing so well

Ds1 I sists on saying nifteen instead of fifteen.

The play date went very well indeed, it was very noisey here but it worked well to have an activity planned for after an hour or so, they all ate pizza. Happy days.

I would go with and abacus too stunt and probably focus more on the play side of things if I am honest.

Gluten free will be fine lily if you cook from scratch it is not too much of an issue. One of my friends has recently gone gluten free and there are a couple of great Phil Vickery books focused on it. She made us focaccia the other day to go with a soup and it was heavenly. My mum and DD1 were gluton free and I cooked for them all the time, I didn't really struggle with it it was more the prospect of it. Every few weeks I cut gluton right out and feel loads better and less tired and sluggish when I do. How you feel will definately make it worth it.

He's completely obsessed though Grace, he goes to sleep at night whispering letter names and counting.

Stunt another letter and number obsessive here. IKEA abacus has been good and also we have some maisy cards from sainsburys sale with different numbers of objects on which has been good

Inspired by all your bulk cooking and cheap food shopping, I've been going through my accounts as I am literally haemorrhaging money and have worked out all my cash is going on unneccesary food shopping. £5 a day at work; £20/£30 quick tesco shops 2/3/4 times a week; £20+ on take aways or meals out every week.... it has to stop.

SO, I've just done a month of meal planning (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and a massive online food shop (filled baskets on tesco, asda, sainsburys and waitrose and - using voucher codes - waitrose was actually cheapest!) and written weekly shopping lists of 'top up' items for the next 4 weeks. If I stick to it, my total food/grocery spend this month will be £180. Savings - £320. I'm determined to cut this down more so watching for tips with interest!

Wow ISLES what a huge saving - good luck with it.

I would love to do a month long meal plan and see how much I could cut down our food spends with it.

When I got the bloody slow cooker I was going to follow one of those monthly plans where you prepare food for the month and put in the freezer. But then I realised I hated my slow cooker, so gave up on that one.

That was my original plan but a) I hate my slow cooker. b) I hated most of the meals I could find that would work. I really hope I can stick to it!

I have spent a good part of the afternoon looking at month long meal plans, which is naughty as I should be writing my bloody essay.