November 2014 - The one where they outrun us!

[MrsAukerman]

New thread ladies.

Glad we opened load pressies yesterday as they can be popped away Fri ready for next lot but it's crazy with 2 children 4yrs apart. Although megablocks and toot toot the 5yr old happily plays with baby.

I don't really buy next for the children get odd bit but prefer marks Spencer and John Lewis or frugi/maxomorra stuff.

I have to buy next trousers as long leg and only place they fit

Every single stitch DS owns is Tesco. I'm cheap as hell, lol. But I have to say they have some great stuff for boys, more colourful than the usual navy boringness. I got a Wheres Wally t shirt for next summer for him which I'm obsessed by and may have spend 10 mins staring at trying to find Wally

DD has fair bit of tesco clothes, especially this year with sizes changing every three months. Their points double up events meant I was able to get piles of body and sleep suits for 0.00 pounds. Amazing! Also for girls, if you skip all the ott pinks and frills, there are some neutral and decent clothes. She has also Mothercare, Boden, redoute, gap, anything with a good discounts at some point. I refuse to pay full price for something what will be used for short period of time.

DD is wearing quite a lot of baby gap stuff I bought in the sale... I find their sizing tiny, she is only 10th percentile or so for height and has really short arms, but her 12-18 clothes from there fit her perfectly! Unlike most other 12-18 which is too big on her arms and legs. Bought some long sleeve vests from Tesco the other week and the sleeves are 6cm longer than the babygap tops!! DD is swamped in them! She does tend to grow into the sleeves of things just as she bursts out of them at the belly!
I also have quite a lot of Boots miniclub stuff from sales over the past year and then some bits from supermarkets, and Next too as it is good quality I find. I'll probably duck into the sale at some point after xmas to see if there's anything left in her size.

I have found it much easier than I thought to avoid too much pink and frilly stuff with DD. She does have some bright pink stuff but no pastelly pink. Now she has quite a lot of hair at the front I can put a clip in it to keep it out of her eyes which means I can dress her in 100% boy clothes and people still know she's a girl! It doesn't really bother me but I feel awkward saying "ah HER name's Eliza" or "oh actually she's a girl" 1700 times in a morning... I did tell an old lady in a supermarket once "His name's Peter" when I was just tired and didn't want to stop and talk! Unfortunately she said "Oh Peter! lovely you don't hear many of those do you, i have a nephew called Peter"

We have a fever from the MMR yesterday and today, nothing too bad, not over 39, but it's my last day at work today and I HAD to be in to do a quick bit of work and then sign it off, so I dumped her at nursery and promised to be able to pick her up at lunchtime if necessary. Luckily the manager is great... "Did you give her calpol?" Yes... "Well that will give you four hours, go go go!". Hope she is over it for Christmas...

Can't believe how much she has mastered walking in just a week. She's doing circuits round the rooms, turning corners, almost running. We looked at some lovely bobux shoes at the weekend but they were £38 and DH said, we can buy them, but does she really need them before Christmas... and she doesn't really so we will get them after the next pay check...

Eliza is such a gorgeous name!

We're having a debate about when to buy "proper" shoes here too. DS has now been walking for about 6 weeks, and he never ever crawls anymore so its full on.

But in this wet weather is there any point in forking out for a pair? I might wait another while till he can really walk outside. We got a pair of felt slippers with rubber soles which do in an emergency.

Everyone says to get Clarks but I went looking the other day and they're all Velcro. He'd have them open in a second! How come girls get to have buckles but not boys? Annoying.

Thanks Anna!

Yeah it's hard to know when to buy them. The lady in the shop said "is she walking outside yet?" and I was like, well no, but if she had shoes she would! these are the ones I liked. But I couldn't decide between that blue or red.

I don't like many of the girls ones in clarks. They almost all have a big gap on the top of the foot which seems ridiculous in this weather. There are some real bargains on the clarks website though at the mo so I may buy a pair for nursery - would be very sad if her fancy £££ boots went AWOL.

I remember the old days, my little brother and his friends wore T-bar buckle shoes in the spring and summer. Bring back t bar shoes for boys!

moggle we get constant "hello little man" and "what's his name?". The other day a lady in the shop told us "he's gorgeous, he has a really nice boy face". DH and me both were gobsmacked and didnt even argue about her being a gorgeous girl not boy.
We ended buying her clarks boy shoes, didnt think that all the pink and summery girls shoes would cut it for winter months. If we are about and about all day she sooner or later wants to walk around, so needed something better than leather slippers. Ah, she has come back to walking again, weird baby!

Now, that we talk about buying things for LOs. What is your most pointless purchase for them? Mine is rather embarrasing, year ago I bought DD 10 underpants size 12-18 months. I thought they get potty trained around that time . I still try to convince myself they might come handy in summer, if not wearing vest to cover a nappy...

DD is mostly in GAP, mum works next door and cleans them out when they get to about 80% off. I also refuse to pay full price for anything!

We always get the 'he's very cute' comments. She has long hair at the back but it just doesn't grow at the front, she's really working a redneck mullet. Also I try and avoid too much pink so DP says it's my fault. Contrary to this one of my pointless purchases is tutus/ She has 3 but they're total impractical, she hates them and they're hard to crawl in and what the bloody hell do you wear with a tutu in the winter??

I've come down with some evil virus, I feel dreadful. I had to stay at my mums with dd last night because we have no heating or hot water at home and dp had to come and collect her this morning, I didn't feel safe to drive. I went to bed at 8 and only just woke up!! I needed that.

My pointless purchase is some wellies with adorable stars on them I bought in a whirl of giddiness the first week he walked. I didn't realise a) it'd be literally weeks and weeks before he walked outside and in between he'd be underneath a pram footmuff, and b) how hellish it is to get wellies onto little feet.

Thank god they were only 4 quid. That said, he's wearing them outside in the garden with DH right now and is able to walk in them. But I feel like a bad mummy as they're so rigid and plastic.

Most pointless items here have been hats in general. He will not keep them on unless they fasten under the chin. His cycling helmet and one other hat therefore is all that we use.
Fashion-wise we're H&M for basics and PJs, handmedowns and home knitted for the rest. Some eBay polarn and me too and we're on bobux style leather booties but eBay cheap version. He's taken a couple of steps outdoors then fell to his hands and knees and got gravel on his hands. It's not the season for it really. I intend to get him measured at clarks then repeat by doing it myself, see if we agree then buy him some barefoot type shoes for his first outdoor forays but in no rush. We also have handmedown wellies that will hopefully get used while the season and size match up. I think they're a 4. I keep eyeing up what his nearly 4 yr old cousin is wearing and mentally bagseying it as they're both winter babies and SIL has good taste.

2,5 weeks in the nursery and DD got her first nursery bug. She had slightly runny nose yesterday, which this morning had turned into streaming cold. She didn't seem too much affected so we took her to the nursery today. Tonight went to pick her up, she seemed bit lifeless, not the usual herself. Took her home to find out she had a bit of fever, put her down and gave a bottle. Half way through it, she had projectile vomit. That together with calpol seems to have livened her up and the temperature has gone down as well. Hopefully over Christmas she is ok, just bit snotty... It would be shame she went down for days on her last nursery day in 2015.

Hope you all have a lovely day tomorrow.
I feel like I've got a long way to go to get there. Didn't get into bed until 1.30am, a combination of late night wrapping and long hours of crying from DD2, trying to tidy the house, then early dinner, church, trying to get DDs to sleep (DD1 is overexcited and DD2 is full of cold and coughing and hates sleep), then still so much to wrap.
Am working from 2pm tomorrow so will make the most of the morning at home, but at least I won't have to cook dinner!

Good luck happy! Hope it's not too late of a night for you.

DP is off to watch star wars so I'm going to put dd to bed and drink the salted caramel baileys I got for xmas, medicinal like, to sooth my sore throat.

My cough meant I got about 3 hours sleep last night, perhaps getting a little pissed will relax my cough reflex? Finally got the xmas decs up this morning, dd hasn't been as destructive as I thought, just pointing and saying 'tree' excitedly (although it's pronounced more like 'tlee' but that's good enough for me). I've prepped all the veg, stuffing and pigs in blankets for tomorrow, I'm always organised if it allows me more bubbles drinking time. Got dd early from the childminders and watched an xmas film before having a nap. Actually a pretty good Christmas so far!

Just got to figure out how to cook a goose and I'm all set.

Merry Christmas one and all!!

Wishing everyone a lovely day tomorrow - whether spending it with loads of friends and family, or having a "just us" Christmas (like we are ).

Like you Ladydolly, I expected dd to be polling down the tree etc, but she seems spectacularly dis-interested in it!...unlike the wires of the fairy lights...

Bedtime story tonight was "The night before Christmas" - the same book that my Mum always read to my brother and I on Christmas Eve .

Good luck everyone, and here's to a happy and healthy 2016 for us all

Happy Christmas all, DH & I have abruptly come down with miserable colds but DS has so far escaped it with his insane immune system.

So we're very poorly and are lumbering about the place moaning and feeling sorry for ourselves but thank god its only the 3 of us tomorrow so it doesn't matter a bit. And we got a turkey crown instead of a whole bird so it should hopefully be easy peasy.

And chocolate trifle is in the fridge!

Hope everyone has a nice and stress free day. Merry Christmas!

We have been battling with DDs cold and high fever last few days, but she seems to get better, bit wobbly on the move though. How did your DC like their presents and what was the biggest hit? DD likes Lego duplo the most although we are still due to put up the wigwam over next few days.

We are dogdying the turkey here because its just us Christmas and we dont have to please anybody. So its scallops with chilli jam for starters and venison with blackberry sauce all courtesy of Ottolenghi latest cookbook. ;)

Cooor strawberry that sounds nice!! We had goose, just the 3 of us but could have fed 6 at least. Family coming tomorrow so they'll get the leftovers. Dd went mad for the spiced red cabbage (pink poo tomorrow then). Top presents were a beats machine, like an electronic drum thing with a plastic hammer. I got it for 1.50 at the nct sale, still boxed. And a glowing princess leia rubber duck!! She loved it! Surprised that 2 friends got her chocolate??

Choc trifle makers, how did you get on??

Dp got me amazing pressies, aspinal wallet, nigella cookbook, label maker (don't ask!) and I got him a voucher for proper running shoes since he always says he's going to start and other stocking fillers like socks... hope he's not too disappointed!!

Oooh the chocolate trifle was INSANE. Felt a bit sick afterwards, tbh. But no regrets!

DS got a shape sorter thingy from Mothercare with cogs and doors that open with keys (big hit once he'd twigged it) and a big Iggle Piggle (who he was all shy with, adorable)

We didn't get much as he was getting a good bit of stuff from family and I'm glad we didn't now. No need. He spent much of the day playing with DH's car keys!

And DH and I went to bed at 8.30pm cos we were knackered with these lousy colds, and he's already asleep and I'm happily looking at the sales online between dipping into a crappy free romance on the Kindle that'll hopefully have lots of shagging in it. Perfect end to the day! Cheers!

Yesterday, like every other day, DD2 was only interested in DD1's toys. DD1 woke up just before 7, and DH thought it would be a good idea to wake DD2 up then. It wasn't a good idea! DD2 was not particularly interested in opening presents, constantly tried to take her sister's things, DD1 complained about that and DD2 threw herself on the floor in a pile of wrapping paper and had a festive tantrum because I moved her away from DD1's dolls' house, then she had a nap and things were a bit better. We only had Christmas at home in the morning because I was at work in the afternoon, so she still has presents to unwrap. She has showed some interest in the magnetic drawing board (we got this because she liked her sister's smaller one), pop-up tent and fisher price pig toy. She was not as interested as I hoped in the cuddly cat, and she really doesn't like the musical Clanger MIL got her. I am working tonight, then tomorrow we are going to my parents who are having a family Christmas on Monday when all my siblings can be there.

We're at PILs having slept over. MIL is still in bed and we've been up since 0550. Getting a bit bored now! DH and DS are napping so I'm just MNing and watching Big Bang. Hope you all had a lovely time yesterday.

We had a lovely day at the ILs, it was a bit strange because FIL was in hospital after having a prostate op on xmas eve, but it was the first time I've had Christmas just with DH's immediate family not huge swathes of his cousins and aunts / uncles so it was really nice. DD loved playing with her cousin (4 yrs old) especially her wooden train set! I think her favourite presents were a vtech pop up train, a Spot teddy, and her first box of duplo. As she's walking she got to wear a dress for the first time in ages and looked very cute indeed toddling around the house. She only really ate pigs in blankets from the Christmas dinner though, fusspot!

We had a quiet day here - favourite toys seem to be a wooden train set and a rocking giraffe (that we've named "George"...).

And the biggest thing in our house is that I've stopped BF....actually a very big step and feel quite emotional about it tbh. Gave her her last BF yesterday evening so almost kept going for 13 months (WAY longer than I'd ever anticipated). This evening was the first try of a beaker of warmed cow's milk....not exactly a roaring success; think she had 5 ml max. Spent most of the time crawling around on the sofa or putting the spout in her mouth but not actually drinking. Oh well, let's see what impact that has on her sleep / waking up time. She did have some water straight afterwards...just have to wait and see I guess. Maybe she's going to be a child who simply doesn't want an evening drink of milk???? Do they really exist????

We still do a bottle at night rather than a beaker in the darkened bedroom.

But we've been reducing the milk content so right now it's 50% water (he only takes about 4ml in total. )

The idea is that before he's 18 months old it'll be 100% water. Better for his teeth.