January 2014: And then they were two! A new year and new tantrums as we welcome the terrible twos.

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New thread.

Well hello. Fresh hell of toddlerhood this week has included standing in dogpoo then doing the traditional standing in car seat refusing to be folded into it so I had a bonus car seat to wash on Sunday night (and then a total WTF moment on Mon am when wondering where half mycar seat was.
On the plus side, tellytubbies are an instant hit and last longer than Peppa.

Just wondering - H has ended up really wheezy after the last bout of toddler lurgy. Is this something all toddlers do or am I being a slack parent by not going to see GP? I have asthma but pregnancy and a nice dry house and clean air seem to have sorted it out. Had a slight panic about whooping cough on Sun but the whoops have disappeared thank fuck not thinking about prolonged carer's leave oh no, not a bit

Oh dear puggle, dog poo on the car seat sounds horrible! Teletubbies are a big hit here too; N said his first word watching it. Now he won't stop saying 'baby'. I enjoy seeing the 90s kids fashions. T shirts under dresses, big baggy shirts, dodgy trainers. It is amazing how dated it looks.

N has had wheezing after every cold and had to go to A&E over the summer. They gave him a ventolin inhaler and a spacer which he will not use, ever. I would definitely keep an eye on it and check for sucking in under ribs, watching for the posture where they put hands on the knees to help breathing. Those need immediate attention. Is it keeping him awake or limiting activity? If so I would take him to the GP. It is horrible being worried and not able to sleep because of their wheezing.

N has had wheezy spells lasting several days four times so far this year. It is horrible.

We get slow motion falls to the floor. Like "I'm really upset, but I dont actually want to hurt myself". We've set up the playpen (which we never really used as L hated being trapped) with some cushions and put her in it when she has a huge tantrum. She calls down in about half the time in there, I did feel mean doing it but giving her her own space seems to help. That or she knows I won't get her out until she calms down!

puggle if you're worried you could ask for a call back from a GP, I've done it a few times when I don't want to use up an appointment but would like some advice.

I think I heard that they are making a new series of tellytubbies. No idea where I heard it though so it might not be true!

Had our 3 month scan yesterday, if convinced myself something was wrong but everything was fine. Letting myself hey a little excited now!

Glad your scan went well GSR. Time is going so quickly!

Still feeling shocked and sick about the attacks in Paris. Again, they were very close to where we lived but thankfully our friends are all ok. They described how the neighbourhood has become a war zone and they have spent the weekend at home, scared to leave.

DD had a birthday party on Saturday and the mood was very sombre. Initially, the plan was for school to be closed yesterday but it did open in the end with a minute's silence at 11am. Adults were walking around in a daze, everyone talking about what happened, friends and family who were there. Flags all at half mast.

Vive la France.

Hi everyone it's TTOtte.r name-changed again.
Ive had a stressful few months. Ended up having a miscarriage at 10weeks but the last 4 weeks were so up and down that I was almost relieved to at least know one way or the other. They took my (pre-)diabetes very seriously so I'd had four scans by the tone they told me the baby no longer had a heartbeat, including one two days beforehand where everything was ok and they told me I might be bleeding because of an undeveloped second sac.

I actually feel pretty ok about it all and we've started ttc again pretty much immediately. It helps that A is a little darling (and at least relative to his older sister, doesn't tantrum at all). He's very, very affectionate which is lovely 90% and claustrophobic 10%.

Altered glad to hear your friends are ok. It's all very worrying.

Sweet sorry to hear about your mc it sounds like you're doing well under the circumstances.

I fell off the thread again. Not much going on here as usual. S swinging between being super cute and fun to being a horrendous little thing. She's like Jekyll and Hyde at the moment!

Hello Bea. How was your child free night last weekend then?
I'm swithering about what to do about sleep. I think I;ve probably been swithering for 23 months. Never been a good sleeper, but I do wonder if I should try and do some sleep training - but then suddenly things have changed out of the blue (like napping in the bed all of a sudden) so maybe it'll all fix itself. Do you all have supersleepers now?

Puggle it was fabulous. I had such a good time. But now I feel really down in the dumps about being back to changing nappies and refereeing tantrums all day every day. I often feel like I should have waited until I was much older to have a baby and lived my life a bit more but too late now! (Not that I regret S at all, I know how awful that last sentence sounds. I am lucky to have her)

Re sleep - S now sleeps well. After 19 months of waking up 3 times minimum per night (more often closer to 6/7 times) she just randomly started sleeping through at the start of August. I didn't change a thing, it just happened. So sorry that's probably not very helpful of me, but if that hadn't have happened I'd probably still be putting up with the constant waking up hoping it would fix itself. Sleep training is really hard especially when they are older and you are exhausted yourself!

Sweet so sorry to hear your news, but glad to hear you're now feeling okay.

How is everyone? I am really excited for Christmas. I took S in to town today as I needed to go fabric shopping and she was amazed by all the lights and decorations!

Bea I am much more excited about Christmas than I have been in many years! Still think F is a teensy bit young to "get it", but I know he will love some bits (all the lights, markets, Christmassy films etc...)

I'm sorry about your mc sweet , lovely to hear from you though.

I HATE Christmas (always have, even as a child), but P is so thrilled by it all that I'm feeling a bit less Bah! Humbug! about it this year. She loves all the lights and xmas tat in the local garden centres, and is addicted to lebkuchen. She can only say a handful of words, but her first was "star", which is the shape of the lebkuchen. Every morning she asks for one for breakfast

Everything is okay here, although the hideous screaming whenever she has to get dressed or changed can eff off. Other than that she seems to be a late developer with regard to the tantrums, which can only mean that when they do come they'll be EPIC. She's also started using a potty in the morning and evening. I don't want to potty train her, and just got the potty out because she was weeing on the floor after her bath because she wouldn't get bloody dressed, but she's taken to it with some gusto. If she ever talks enough to tell me she needs a wee then I guess I'll have to bite the bullet, but until then I'm ignoring it!

I fell off the thread too

So sorry sweet
I get what you mean about claustrophobic. L can be very clingy, which is sweet but sometimes I just wish she could go 5 minutes without touching me!

L doesn't sleep. She'll never sleep. The other night she did 8-1 then screamed for 4 hours before sleeping 5-9. Most nights she wakes up 2-3 times before we give up and bring her into bed with us or one of us takes her to the spare room. But we are getting random 8-4s so I'm hoping they will become more frequent without any kind of training!

I love christmas, I've already wrapped all L's stocking fillers! We've finally been told we will be moving in march, so I've been in planning mode trying to find playgroups we're not too isolated!

Mine'll never sleep either. I'm sure. We've had a trip to Kids ward with brochiolitis at the start of the week so the sleeping is dire. I look like I have a newborn. Or a fab social life. Grr.
However, am totally excited for Xmas too. Really hoping its cold enough we might manage a wee trip to the snow in the morning.
I'm impressed with potty use! H is now telling me "mummy/ poo / clean / need" which is fairly helpful but would be more use to know BEFORE the poo has happened. Our potty is generally used as a step stool.

puggle I am desperately trying to engender defecation realisation, but am failing miserably. Any time I catch F straining, or I get The Whiff, I do the whole "have you done a poo? Shall we look? Let's go upstairs to change your nappy, because you have pooed"...

...

...NOTHING.

I think F is in denial.

Hi everyone, good to see a flurry of messages!

Firstly Sweet v sorry to hear about your mc. Here's hoping for some good news soon.

I am always excited about Xmas, so I'm even worse. I bought a reindeer made from logs at a Christmas Fayre today which seemed like a great idea until I went to pick it up, weighs a sodding ton! I looked ridiculous carting it back to the car with boy in tow.

We've had a rubbish couple of weeks with illness; croup (which needed a hospital visit and steroids in the end), major teething issues, and a lingering cold. Poor little monkey just can't get right at the moment.

I am dreading when it comes to potty training, not so much due to A, more dh! He has a bit of a poo phobia, won't even say the word! He wants us to go straight to using the toilet rather than a potty, not sure how A will feel about that. Unless A gives any indication otherwise my intention is to try in the summer when he'll be wearing less layers and I can get clothes dried quicker. Definitely not babies anymore!

Oh the screaming getting dressed. I was seriously wondering if I could move somewhere sunny before this phase is out as every item of clothes requires a screaming session. Also total coat refusal this am, (its -2 outside) so when we got to nursery he told me he was cold. Grr.
All that "let them pick which t shirt they want to wear" supernannying doesn't work either. He just says no to all options. Today required the boobs being used as a bribe. Not even two for this to be the terrible twos either.....

I hope everyone is better now Merry

L's usually ok at getting dressed, but she keeps getting weird fascinations with random things she won't put down for hours. Like two dessert spoons or a bucket. Trying to get her to move them from one hand to another so I can dress her results in paddies as she thinks I'm trying to take them away. She went to sleep cuddling an empty tupperware box a few days ago.

P spent ages cuddling a potato the other day gsr. She also likes to stand and stroke eggs in Tesco. Toddlers are weird. She now has to carry approx. 1 million things with her every time she moves from room to room. She even gives me stuff to carry so she can take more stuff along.

No coats here either puggle. Or shoes. I'm so bored of the struggle twice a day I can't tell you. Has the bronchiolitis cleared up?

Much better cheers though still a tendency to go a bit blue if he's scampering about too much. I bought a pulse oximeterfrom Amazon but it seems a bit shit so I think I'll be sending it back. Sleet here it's horrible

They are so strange. L has to carry things too, today she put some rubbish- genuine, about to be thrown away rubbish- in my handbag to take to granny's. Then at her gran's she carried some onions around for ages.

That sounds scary puggle, i hope he is fully better soon.

Looking forward to the random object affection. After telling DH that H had been a nightmare and mornings and evenings were dire for dressing, he got dressed with minimal no no nos this morning. Happy days.

OMG cute overload. F has started this week a bedtime routine for his George and Teddy toys. Love it. He insists they have their bottle, then get laid on a cushion on the sofa, and then are gently stroked on the tummy while being told "night night x".

SO CUTE.

That is very very cute Angel! F sounds lovely.

I am very sorry to hear about your mc Sweet and hope you are pregnant again soon.

How are H and A now puggle and merry? British winters are a bastard for chest complaints, but IME medical staff are consequently very good at managing them.

Weather has been chilly even here and kids wear coats in the mornings. By lunchtime they need sunglasses though so I end up lugging coats, judo clothes and school books everywhere. Peacocks £2 fleece pyjamas have come in very handy for DD and her cousins.

Book I hope this doesn't sound creepy, but I really like P. She clearly knows what she wants, uses her initiative (getting you to carry everything, genius!) and if she appreciates the value of lebkuchen then she must be on the right track. I may have looked up the recipe after reading your post.

N doesn't talk much either but is amassing a comprehensive junk food related vocabulary. He says cookie, biscuit, cupcake, cake and chocolate. This is about half his vocabulary. We can't bring nesquik cereal or pringles into the house or else he won't eat anything but them. Grandparents have a lot to answer for.

How are christmas preparations going? DD has finally clocked that Father Christmas brings presents to your house and not just at school, so she is compiling her list. It so far includes a scooter, a broccoli soft toy, a mini christmas tree, claves and about a million other things. She has also designated the place where mince pies and a drink are to be left for Father Christmas. She spent last night having a meltdown about the lack of a chimney in our apartment block. They are doing the All I Want for Christmas is You for the Christmas concert so we have to watch the music video every day at home so she can sing for us. She thinks it is a love song about Father Christmas and that Mariah Carey is married to him.

The bedtime routine sounds so cute angel!

Christmas preparations here mostly involve saying no to another advent calendar chocolate every 15 seconds throughout the day. I so wish I hadn't got one! P is also watching The Snowman and The Snowman and the Snowdog on repeat. I hate them. They are so miserable. Oh, and she has learnt to say "Ho Ho" when she sees FC, thanks to an app

We've had three xmas parties so far, and another on Wednesday. Then on Friday we're down to visit the in-laws who will give her one billion presents. I also have started panicking about a birthday party, luckily it is a joint one with Toby's M so I only have half the stress! Anyone got any birthday present ideas?