March '13 - packing up our troubles and getting excited about the new babies

[ecofreckle]

It's that time again. This thread is going to explode with squishy babies. Which is nice.

The dentist was a doddle. I thought fillings were supposed to hurt! It was vaguely uncomfortable, but nowhere near is bad as the water torture cleaning device. I've got that odd sensation of being able to feel the slight gaps between my teeth with my tongue. It makes me want to eat doughnuts until the gaps are all smooth again.

Day got a lot better thanks to the Bank of Dad. Fartypants has been out for the count for three hours already, and I've mostly spent my evening wondering what the hell Windows 8.1 is supposed to be. I want my shiny new computer to look like a computer, not a smartphone. WTF, Microsoft? WTF?

Hope you're back with a bank card soon Betty, that sounds no fun at all. If you're ever Dorset way and feeling a bit foodie I have to recommend Winchester - in addition to HFW, Rick Stein and personal hero, Raymond Blanc. We are thinking of escaping there some time for a dirty weekend break

Worse I'd say Happy Anniversary but that seems misplaced given the circumstances. Here's to the rest of the year . Babax sounds such a delightful baby, and with that massive smile to boot, I bet you just melt all over him constantly.

Stormy I'm certain we've just had a mental leap forward. Speech and counting in particular are more joined up, and he's not had a single tantrum the entire time we've been away. And he's been eating everything. Lovely.

Windows 8 is a steaming pile of horseshit. That is a fact.

Ugh morning poor sentence making tired. Apols.

God, I love the non-tantrummy phases. We've eased off on them since a couple of weeks ago, but it is clear FP gets her bloody stubbornness from her mother. I forsee a battle of wills lasting the next twenty years.

I've been watching the littlest niece this morning while Dbro went to doc's. On being told, "That's an outside toy; don't bring it on the house please," she complies without fuss. It's so very bizarre to witness. Mind, I suspect she's a bit less obedient with Dbro - she doesn't know how far she can push me so errs on the side if caution. FP is the same with Dbro. I tell her to do something and it's no, no, no no no in a singsong voice. He tells her to do it and off she trots.

I used to hate windows until we got a Mac. Now I just hate the Mac. Especially the tiny titchy keyboard with the keys in the wrong place, and the wi-fi mouse that is either doing its own thing and ignoring me, or is doing nothing because the batteries are flat.

I think we've just had a massive mental leap here to, on the Babax front. Yesterday he started to crawl, which at one day short of 5 months ain't bad going. It's an alternative kind of crawl though, called the bum in air face on floor wriggle, but hey, he can move! Plus you know I said he'd wake at 4am, because he went to bed at 8.30pm. Well he didn't. I woke him at 6.30am as I needed to feed him before the nursery run. Worselet slept through too. That must be the first time ever that I've been home alone that they've both given me an easy night.

Pilates this morning - and I don't want to go. I can't use the pool when DH is away which is miserable in this weather.... only I could now as Babax is asleep in the pram and Worselet is at nursery, but I have to go to sodding pilates. This is patently rubbish. I promised the surgeon I'd go though, and I didn't last week I'd been up all night and couldn't face it, so, hey ho off I go

Crikey, go Babax! You do know how to breed 'em physically ahead of the curve, don't you worse? Good job that boy.

Macs are just no. They have always been counterintuitive and wrong. I always got on well with Windows because its early incarnations were a logical and intuitive continuation of the Atari desktop interface, which was easier to use than the Atari version of DOS when I was a nipper. 8.1 is sufficiently smartphonesque that it no longer has that intuitive desktop feel you come to rely on when you've been using it since you were about four. I hope 10 is preferable, as it'll automatically update in a couple of weeks.

C: on this new beast is a 60GB solid state drive. Note to self: check total size of updated and patched game before unthinkingly selecting 'okay' when prompted 'install on C:?' That takes me back to the Atari days too, when you played one game until you were sick of it, then uninstalled to make space for a different game. Oh, the heady joys of our first external hard drive, containing a whole megabyte of space! The sheer bliss of being able to have half a dozen games installed at once!

Did you get a swim this afternoon worse or is the worselet on half days at nursery? God I envy you that pool anyway but in this weather it would be awesome. for the anniversary, that's hard going. Glad you had a good night - in fact that's an awesome night! I had a better one as DH did til 3.30 so had had 6 hours sleep by then

How's the beach plonk ??!!

It's the weekend!!

Egads, what a day. Rounded it off with a cleaning spree and a dead neighbour. Worse can I just cancel tomorrow and come chill in your pool?

Stormy What??? I hope it was a old age related demise.

Shattered I'm afraid not, this morning was my one and only opportunity. Tomorrow's another day though . It's a shame you don't live down the road as then we could both swim!

Pilates however was really quite fun. The class is run by a impossibly glamorous French women, who has 5 kids and the smallest waist you have ever seen. I just love her very Parisian take on life which is a refreshing change from the more lentil weaving PC brigade more usually found at mum and baby groups. Both takes are fine, but she is funnier.

Looked like she was in her thirties. Heart trouble apparently. They only moved in a couple of months ago.

In other news, I have ordered a potette. Three wees on the potty today, and one of them was at nursery. We've still had no success with poos so still in pullups though. I am very proud nonetheless.

That's so sad. Her family must be devastated

I had to google potette. I'm so behind the curve

I remember Rainbow had a potette, but I was a bit unsure about what precisely they are until one popped up on my facebook feed yesterday. Looks damned useful when out and about. And it doubles up as a kiddie sized loo seat, very handy if you're in public toilets. Can easily take to the park too. And if she likes it, she'll be able to wee at my dad's too - seems a bit scared of the big toilet so far. Well, not scared as such, but very very reluctant to sit on it.

Hello. Sorry for being quiet. I actually did post the other day but mn ate it and I didn't have time to write it all again. Been a bit of a bugger of a couple of weeks. Mil and Df in hospital though both out now. Things not brilliant at either end. However we have come away for a few days with family (house sitting) and the sun is shining, a takeaway will soon be delivered (I'm not used to that!) and dh has just popped out for wine . Better still Ds seems to have gone happily to bed (normal at home but not normal on the last couple of travels so hope that's new normal). He did throw up in the car though, so I have been trying to get vomit smell out of straps unsuccessfully... Any tips?

Wotta strong solution of biological washing powder in hot water. Scrub with one of those non-stick sponge scourers. Sponge soap out. Repeat. Keep repeating until they pass the sniff test. This has worked many many times more than once here

Sounds good worse. Will see how I get on...

We're home now after a lovely week away. Hope everyone's well (yummy, something, shattered, eco?)

Hope it works Wotta. And sorry you've been having such a shit time recently, hope the break is restorative.

Stormy we've got a solid state on the new beastly pc too. I've been in the bad books umpteen times already for failing to remove my photos off it onto the E: once they're edited. It's confusing, and you're right, seems impossibly old school.

Sorry to hear about your neighbour
I think we're on the brink of potty training. While we were away I left ds in the living room alone for ten mins so I could make breakfast. After a few mins I heard shouts of "Mummy! George wee wee!" Lo and behold he was fully clothed, pointing to a wet chair with a big proud smile on his face. The fact he'd managed to de and re nappy (pull up) and retrouser was as impressive as it was frustrating. Upon telling my mum that ds had peed all over her chair, she told me I need to teach him how to use the loo.

We shared the drive back yesterday so I drove from Oxford. And encountered some hilarious sexism in the service station car park! Bloke drives battered old Ford Ka (you know those huge unwieldy things ) into a parking space. Hits kerb. "Straightens" up into wonky position and isn't even within lines. Sees youngish looking woman putting small child into adjacent car and decides it's only right and proper to guide her out. Its only a small thing I know but it really bothered me.

Oh but on a positive note, ds slept perfectly in a single bed while we were away. I wonder if his cotbed isn't actually very comfy. We've taken the side off anyway but I think he'll be getting a big bed in the not too distant.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Bungle glad you enjoyed the trip away. I loved the chair story. That is just so two year old . We've had a few peeing on the floor instances when she is in her swimming costume, which although frustrating can also be funny as she automatically fetches the bucket and mop so that she can wash the floor. Part of me suspects the only reason she made a puddle is so she can clean it up.

Ugh, I hate the 'helpful' blokes in car parks. There is always one. I also hate the angry blokes in cars who assume that just because I am driving a tank means I can't drive through narrow gaps or reverse and get disproportionately enraged abut me being on narrow roads. Just lighten up guys or I might drive into you

I think there is a certain appeal to being in a big grown up boy's bed over a baby bed. Worselet has a similar view on chairs.

SIL, BIL and DN staying for a few days as of today. Hopefully will be fun....

Glad to hear your holiday was fun bungle, and that you're getting a little one currently Wotta. Long overdue! What take away did you go for?

We'll be exploring beds soon I think. Ecotod climbed out of her travel cot for the first time last night. Literally as we were trying to leave house for a wedding. She got out and started bashing on the door We ended up being a bit late and employing grandma's skills to the max.

Sorry to hear about your neighbour Stormy. Sounds very unexpected.

Something did you keep your sickness to yourself?

All is well enough our end. Ecotod is in bed early due to lack of sleep last night and today whilst we've been away with my husband's step family. I am planning two episodes of mad men, and glass of wine, and.éclair and an early night. Hope some of you are a bit more rock and roll.

Bungle did you persevere with mad men? We're on season three now. Sally's skirts are just the right length now. But it's still infused with sexism.

We will be joining the big bed club soon too. From the monitor sounds, I think she may be disturbing herself by bumping into the sides. DBro was round the other day with his drill, accruing manpoints like there's no tomorrow. I had to stop him from taking the sides off for twofold reasons: she is still in a sleeping bag and I can't afford a whole new duvet set just yet; and my dad was babysitting that night. She protested bedtime for a good hour for him, I dread to think how bad it would have been with no sides.

All is well here too, except mother, who has started hallucinating. If her sister is any inclination it will be a rather rapid decline from this point. But on the plus side, my cleaning spree involved moving furniture and I have managed to free up a suitable wall for yet another bookcase. Huzzah!

Sorry to hear that your mum's declined more Stormy. You know if we were all closer we'd be taking you down the pub for a good chat.

Two nights of no cot side have been interesting. The first night he was obviously bamboozled by the change in location and failed to notice the side off but last night he crept out of bed twice, shortly after being tucked in. Little critter was discovered at the top of the stairs asking for mummy and a biscuit, then attempting to creep into our room. Once dh cajoled him back to bed he stayed there till 6.15. We really need to put a stairgate at the top of the stairs though.

Now our next job is clearing the dumping ground spare room so we can actually fit a 3 ft bed in it. Can't wait to have most ofvhis toys not in the living room.

Eco we're at the end of season 6. Sally is now a pretty cool teen, Pete Campbell might be my favourite dickhead in anything ever, and Don is still exceptionally easy on the eye. We thought it started to get a lot funnier after season 3. Persevere!!

Fartypants just passed her two year check with flying colours. Not bad considering the letter they sent never arrived so I had no chance to coach her. HV had a trainee midwife with her, and they both had a look and agreed she looked tongue tied. I bloody knew it!

Nice one FP! So on a scale of completely passive to furious, where do you stand on the exceedingly late TT diagnosis? Given all the difficulties you had getting milk into her, I wouldn't be surprised if you were livid.

Ds went on his first nursery outing today, a teddy bears picnic at the river garden. DH was very cautious about letting him go because ds "has no road sense" but it looks like they had fun. He also asked for a bowl of just custard for pudding after lunch. Quite proud of that.

Mmm, custard. I expect the staff are expecting a total absence of road sense (or indeed any sort of sense). They'll know how to cope.

I am hoping when I ring the surgery on Thursday morning that they'll offer me an appointment with the GP I saw two years ago, who dismissed my tongue tie concerns after the most cursory of glances. And then I can plan very carefully what to say. She's generally lovely so I don't want to be mean, but. Nearly two and a half years of difficult feeding and stress and no one believing there was anything out of the ordinary.

Yes I can see how tempting it must be to go in there and launch into a "YOUFUCKINGMUPPET!" type rant. Probably best to be all calm and whatnot. As I understand it an unsnipped TT can have implications for speech, but it's still shocking that you were left to it with all those feeding problems.

I did point out to dh that very few two year olds possess any sense whatsoever, and that they lay on support staff for lower ratios on such trips. Also wear high vis vests with the nursery's number on the back, and reins. He can be a little PFB sometimes ;)

Speech seems fine so far. HV did say generally at this age if it's not interfering with speech then they won't do much, but if it's affecting eating too (which I suspect it is)... Well, we'll see what the doc says tomorrow.

Fartypants just got two new dinosaurs from the poundshop. For 3 years plus is just a guideline, right? They are a bit pointy, but she loves them, and it is funny listening to her trying to say Stegosaurus. Which my phone just flagged as not a word! My inner palaeontologist is cross.

In other news, the mother situation is getting grimmer rather rapidly. It's hideous. Not just losing her like this, but also the way I'm looking at my own future. It is a bit depressing that I'm already making plans involving Dignitas.