The 11th Gemini bus - Trudging through the terrible twos

[AGnu]

Lor - sorry bad choice of words. What I meant is that there is an uprise of allergies for children in this country. I don't know if it's the same where Bring lives. That's what I was trying to say

In nursery here, since kids are in close proximity and are always swapping things, nuts are banned. In actual school the kids who have allergies sit together in the cafeteria. I understand the scare around nuts and allergies, but on the one hand, it's very frustrating when my kids' allergies to milk and dairy products/proteins/cheese/etc aren't acknowledged just because their allergies aren't as severe as other children's. Which in turn means that we have a very limited selection of items that they can take in their lunches since we use nutmilk when cooking and baking due to our allergies and we're constantly having to be on top of the minders and instructors about not giving them cheese crackers for snack, milk, and pretty much any processed foods have some sort of milk-type product in them. It's an extremely frustrating battle that I'm glad we are seeing less of now that the elder two are in school and are able to take food from home that we don't have to worry about exposing their classmates to nuts. M's daycare is in a private home and there aren't any children in her group that have nut allergies. She's the only one who's not having milk, which is easy since she really only likes water anyway.

Actually pear those do sound like normal OV symptoms for some women. The painful sex part I would be slightly worried about, but I'm thinking it may be due to the enlarged follicles that are causing that extra bit of pelvic pressure. Definitely something to bring up with your Doc when you visit them next!

Bring - Enlarged follicles That doesn't sound great I was wondering whether I had cysts on my ovaries?! Oh well...time will tell. Awww your dairy situation sounds like a lot of hard work. I really am keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to deal with any of that stress in the near future. It must be such a headache to manage outside of home! Far too many inconsiderate idiots to deal with out there!!

Frus - long time no see! Glad you've managed to find a short term solution...look after yourself though Feb/March must feel like a long time away! Must be nice to have a goal in sight now? Wow!!! Your DS is amazing!! Please can you send him over to train my son?? That's how it should work...they should all potty train each other!!

Runt's super enthusiastic about toilet training. He shouts at me regularly to take him, grins with pride when I put him on & then declares "nuh-in cummin" & asks to get down. He just wants to be like Calf but hasn't quite got the concept yet! I've taken to putting him in pants during breakfast time with a towel on his chair in the hope that he'll wet himself & learn to recognise the sensation but so far he's been dry at breakfast & I'm not going to let him wet himself while he's just wandering round the house. If he's not got the idea by the spring/summer then I'll turf him outside in just a t-shirt but I'm not overly concerned. Calf's only just got the hang of it since July-ish so I'm not overly bothered about pushing Runt. He'll figure it out eventually!

I must check what Calf's nursery's policy on outside food for sharing is. They have a communal fruit bowl that everyone contributes to & I've seen someone take cakes in for a birthday so I was planning to do the same for Calf's birthday in a few weeks but I don't know if it's actually allowed or if the cakes got sent home again. I can do gluten/nut/dairy free if required! I'm actually throwing him a little party, with a theme & everything... I'm a little bit scared... but mostly I think I'm scaring DH with my party planning - I nearly had the decorations shipped from America... I found most of the same things on eBay but no plates or napkins. I'm still sad about that. I'm also annoyed at myself for not planning earlier - there are the perfect party bag fillers on eBay but they'd be sent from China & probably wouldn't arrive until after the party.

That's fantastic news Frus! Fx for you and your DD!

We got our halloween costumes in the mail yesterday! M is Anna from Frozen. Her dress is adorable and she won't take it off now. DS1 is Harry Potter and freakishly looks like him with the get-up on... and DS2 is who ever the blue Ninja Turtle is. I should know this by now with 2 turtle-obsessed boys, but I can never keep the green ones straight. I'm going as Minerva McGonagall with my hat and cape. :) DH keeps saying that he's going "as an American" and I gently keep reminding him that most Americans either a)don't have a sense of humor and will actually get quite offended that someone would make fun of their daily outfits or b)not get it and ask him why he hasn't dressed up. I told him to just get a mask and call it good enough for when we go out trick-or-treating. The boys are trying to convince him to go as Professor Snape from HP, which would be pretty funny!

Oh and I'm still making apple-filled items and am getting quite sick of them tbh. I've done: 3 apple crisps (2 are in the freezer), apple and carrot bread, apple and banana bread, apple-cinnamon muffins and I still have a full bag of apples left.

Any other suggestions? I don't know what else to do with the stupid things! I don't do apple pie, I'm not a fan of it myself and I hate trying to wrestle with making pastries. The dough just will not work out for me no matter what recipe I try. . Maybe I'll buy some phyllo dough and do little apple pie packets or something like that? Open to suggestions, someone, please!?

Bring - gee...how big is your freezer??? Apple crumble is nicer then apple pie IMO! Apple ice lollies? Apple purée (I often heat it up with natural yoghurt for pudding), apple sauce?

So, my oven has stopped working. We went out yesterday morning and arrived back to the electrics shutting down and my oven is not turning on. To me that sounds like a fuse in my oven? Deep joy!! I guess you call an electrician in this scenario?!

Arghhhhhh I have to go oven shopping on my own with a 2 year old tomorrow! HELP!! DH does not understand why I can't just be happy with online reviews. This is my once chance to have an oven that I actually like!! I know nothing about ovens but I know that buying it on the basis of how it looks is probably a very bad idea!! How many shelves do I want? How does it clean? Is bigger better? So many things to think about

Oh no Pear! Tragedy! I mean that sincerely! Oh my gosh, yes, by all means use the online reviews! Make a list of a few that you like the looks of and have the features you like and then scan the reviews. I think you can find professional reviews on appliances online too that are always helpful.

Our freezer is pretty gigantic. We have a deep-freeze chest one in the garage so there is plenty of room for loads of stuff.

Isn't apple crumble pretty similar to apple crisp? I could do apple sauce... I made an attempt and the kids didn't like it (I think I'll actually add some honey and cinnamon and they won't realize it's the same batch )

AIBU to be extremely annoyed that DH took my laptop out of the office (the one where every.single.file that I have for work is on), used it to skype his mum, used it for looking up football shit, stuck it under the couch, and then seemed offended that I asked him WTF is my computer?

Bring all your cooking/baking sounds amazing. Apple crumble is so good. Well, normally it's good. As with last pregnancy, I am no longer tolerating apples. Too acidic for me I think. But normally I love them!

pear trauma! Can't believe your oven packed it in. No idea what you should look for in a new one really. The one I have (Siemens) was part of the kitchen when we got our place. I'd love gas hob and oven but not an option in our flat. Also, sorry for jumping on you about the allergy thing the other day. My issues, not yours. You didn't say anything wrong - over sensitive hormonal woman here!

Frus lovely to hear from you, although I've been seeing the updates on FB. Exciting that the implants could be in so soon in the new year. Hope you're getting some good support on the SN boards (assume you are which is why you're camped out there). And great on potty training too. We're taking the same approach - C is interested some days and not others but we're not training him yet.

agnu sounds like potty training starting well for you too!

So, 12 weeks today! Had to chase and chase to get my midwife booking-in appt. and scan sorted. Scan is next Monday (I'll be exactly 13 weeks then). Can't wait, not least so we can TELL PEOPLE!!! I'm seriously popping out of clothes and can't hide it much longer. Sickness has largely subsided which is great but tiredness is very much still with me. That said C has begun to sleep a little better. He's waking up early (6am this morning) but the last three nights has slept through until then which is fantastic. Hopefully he's getting back to himself. He's also settled brilliantly into preschool which is cool. Seriously, the uniform on him is adorable (mummy eyes).

Lor - wow... Where did those 12 weeks go? It feels like yesterday that you shared your bfp news!! That's good news that your son has settled well at pre-school. You must be very proud!

As expected oven shopping was a blinking nightmare lol I went armed with a lot of snacks but... Well you know what it's like. Also, I could just see my new potential wardrobe flashing past as the salesman showed me around the shop floor so that was pretty depressing!! I am going to have to buy a few items of clothing though as I pretty much have nothing that fits anymore and as I was meant to be fat and pregnant I've been holding off for way too long! However, now that we have to buy a new oven it will just be 1 bra, 2 pairs of trousers and new boots. The only downside to being a Sahm for me is my very limited wardrobe boo hoo On the upside I'll have an oven that is bigger, shinier and allows me to bake cookies whilst cooking a chicken at the same time (who does that?!?!) and possibly self cleans but DH has sent me a link to review saying that self cleaning ovens tend to break down a lot.

Lor - I was told that Siemens is the bees knees today so lucky you!!

Woop woop I have somehow managed to persuade DH to buy the self cleaning oven I saw in the shop today (only because he found it cheaper at Currys). Yay!! Wow I really hope the self cleaning mechanism works...what a treat that would be! The only downside is that we will have a super modern oven with our old gas hob (that I now have to light with matches) because we can't afford to replace both at the same time. FX it looks so odd that it ends up really bugging DH meaning he will succumb to the January sales

Yay for the new oven pear! When we moved in to our house we spent loads on getting a fancy-brand oven only for it to break down continually over the next few years. Always the same part. Eventually we got one of their engineers who figured out that something had been wired in wrong & fixed it & we've not had a problem since. We deliberately got a fancy one in the hope that it wouldn't have issues!

DH is still at work. It's his last day at his current job before he moves companies & he's decided he has to do all the things in the world, can't possibly leave anything for the person taking over the project to do. I'm grumpy anyway because I had a total of about 3 hours very interrupted sleep last night. Calf woke everyone up because he was distraught at 3am due to his lack of owning a real dinosaur. And a dragon. That bit was whispered to me when DH was snoring away & I had a child either side of me, both of whom were staring at me. It's ridiculously difficult to go to sleep when you know there's a pair of eyes just inches from your face, staring.
After about an hour of them being in bed with me & not asleep Calf started wriggling. When I told him to lie still he explained that his penis was "rolled up", this was quickly clarified to "the problem is, it's gone big." I really didn't know what to say to that! In the end I had to whisk him back to his room while he sobbed that he'd not sleep in his room silence after 30s & dump Runt in the cot just so I could sleep. I got all of 1.5 hours before I had to wake up & explain to DH that I wouldn't be driving him into work & I'd have to fit in bringing him the cakes that I spent all weekend making later in my already very busy day because 6am is my sleeping time. Thankfully the DC let me sleep in the afternoon, once we'd met up with friends, delivered the cakes & spent 3 hours at the zoo! So looking forward to having DH at home for the rest of the week. Not entirely sure why though, he'll drive me mad with his weird priorities & I'll spend the entire time trying to chivvy him along as well as the DC while trying to surreptitiously prep for Calf's birthday party next week! I want to go to bed just thinking about it. But I can't because DH isn't home yet & I'll just lie there panicking about every little noise. I'll stay up & watch EastEnders without him. That'll learn him.

Ahh Agnu...have a happy week off with an extra pair of hands around I'm sure you're enjoying the first day and hopefully DH will be far more helpful (in a good way) then you imagined

I feel silly for over reacting about my oven! It's been far easier and cheaper to find a replacement then I first expected! It is being delivered on Friday so Fx I've only got another week of hob cooking (only because to save some money a friend is installing it for a small fee)! This afternoon I cooked butternut squash risotto. Tomorrow I will do chicken Korma. It's really not that bad! I do feel like I am seriously quick to over act at the moment...it may be because I've got TTC stuff constantly on my mind...probably!! Oh well...deep breaths huh!

Exciting news on the oven-front! Hope you love the new shiny one that's coming your way!

Sorry to hear about your DH's work-stress agnu. Also seriously started laughing at your DS's convo at stupid o'clock in the morning. We've had many of those lovely conversations. They only keep getting better and more in-depth, just you wait! DS2 was twisting his around during bath time tonight.

So, my phone shattered today. UGH. So frustrating. It still will swipe and let me text on certain points on the screen, but otherwise I can't answer calls. So off to the super fun phone store tomorrow with 2 boys in-tow when I should be catching up on work b/c M's daycare is closed all of next week.

Off to watch the Democratic debate. DH is at a concert and I had to do bedtime alone tonight. It went easier than when DH helps me! What the heck was that all about? So now free time (and just bracing myself for something horrible like a kid puking on my bedroom door or something like that).

I was going to say no Frus but I've just got both DC settled in their proper beds in the same room! Probably helps that we took them on a day trip today & they're both utterly exhausted & I ignored Calf's requests for me to leave the room as soon as they were in their beds when they were both still quite hyper! I'm not that stupid. It's a very rare occasion that they settle in their beds without me staying in there, usually because Calf goes completely hyper, flails, hits & shouts about wanting to kill us...

Talking of Calf's behaviour, we rang the health visitor the other day, having not heard anything since they were supposed to be referring him back in July, & it turned out that the referral had been lost somewhere along the way. She sent it off again & we had a phone call about an hour later offering us an appointment in less than 4 weeks! Not entirely sure who we're seeing or where we're supposed to go but hopefully they'll send a letter! It's progress at least.

I'm hoping I can use an official diagnosis to convince DH that we neeeeeed a dog to be a therapy/assistance dog for me Calf. I suspect he wouldn't qualify as severe enough to need an official one that we could take everywhere though. Would be really handy if he did - we went for a walk with some friends yesterday & it was the first time Calf had spent any time around a dog. Usually he's really wary of them but this dog was beautifully trained & they spent ages playing catch together & I can't even remember the last time I heard him laugh like that! I can totally see both Calf & I being more willing to go to unfamiliar places if we had a dog with us 24-7. I'd want an English shepherd though & there are only 2 or 3 breeders of them in this country & I've not found any charity that says they use them. Perhaps if we did qualify I could arrange to buy one from a breeder & have it sent to the training people. I have found a charity that will help you train your pet to help with ASD but they wouldn't be allowed in shops, etc. I somewhat suspect that if we got it an official looking coat then no-one would question us anyway!

Yes. M is in a bed. She transitioned at about 18 months before she knew she could climb in and out of it. We just put a guard rail on the side and she's been brilliant in it. With that said, we still have to rock her or lay down with her every night to help her get to sleep....

C has been in a bed since the start of the summer. He goes to sleep in it okay but recently if we wakes in the night he gets up and comes looking for us, instead of settling himself back to sleep the way he used to. We do sit with him for a while when he's falling asleep but sometimes can get away before he's asleep. Again we used to be able to do that but lately he'd get up and come after us. Definitely having a bit of a phase.

Not us. Still happy with the cot bed. I'm just enjoying the 1st and only child stage where you can get away with prolonging big steps like this Especially with no bun in the oven...I have to enjoy something!!

Bring - genius idea to do the move at 18months before they even know how to manoeuvre! You're clearly experienced in this area

What I have noticed though is that we've not had an energetic morning which is now resulting in bpear point blank refusing a nap this afternoon. It makes sense. Wth did I agree to meeting a friend for a post nap walk? I can see loads of tired tantrums rolling around in the woods. I bet her children sit happily in their pram lol Oh how tempted am I to cancel!!! I can't think of any good excuse though