December 2012: we thought the terrible twos were bad, here come the threenagers!

[Barbeasty]

Spangly new thread.

T asked for Megs castle for her bedtime story - because owl does a victory trump (farts renamed in our house in honour of the scary hairy one)!

R's got into roald Dahl since his cinema jaunt, so he's half way through Danny the champion of the world :)

I love Danny! Clearly R and T are not going to be in the same book club though!

R's always had quirky taste - his favourite film at 2.5 was Shrek and he prefers Flash Gordon/Paddington to cartoon stuff.

Dh is having a ball reading it to him though

Kindergarten is closed today for a training day. DS and I are having a day out together at the zoo

I love spending time with him on his own. It makes everything much easier. Nothing else to think about, just having a fun day out and eating chips for lunch!

How lovely to make the most of it nutella
I spent 2 hours packing and labelling everything for dd1s trip next week. She's going to have a fab time but not seeing her fri - fri will be hard.

WL, i hope both yours and Dds trips go well. Maybe make a date to go the park just you two on the Friday, that's something for you both to look forward to.

H is still very much into room on the broom type books.

Nutella how was your day with DS?

Pidj, H has just come home from nursery and told me dolls are for girls and cars are for boys. So we had a conversation about people being able to play with whatever they want to. Hopefully it will stick.

R still loves his cars and monster trucks but it seems to have sunk in that it's not up to anybody else to tell him what to like/play with. I'm hoping I'm setting him up with good habits for the future, but it's difficult to tell. He's pushing a lot of boundaries around touching/imposing on other people's space at the moment which is ringing bells for me about consent etc and I'm struggling to find the line between letting him have all the cuddles he needs and respecting my right to not be prodded constantly...

DD loved Shrek, it took us a while to work out what programme "Donkey" was.

A loves his cars, but also playing shops (current nursery obsession), dressing up (including princess dresses), and loves DD's Sylvaian Families. So we're getting him his own sylvanian stuff for Christmas.

Yy to the constant prodding pidj. I find myself saying 'I am not a climbing frame'! The thing I am looking forward to most this weekend is a lack of touching!
Dd1 and I went for a long walk together yesterday evening to store up some 121.

Our favourite toys are cars, the wooden buggy DD got last Christmas essentially got it to appease the PIL ad their need to buy "girl" toys. But knew the kids would love pushing each other about in it then magnet toys, animals and play dough.... And they generally seem to play with whatever the other one wants to play with, of course, so it doesn't seem to end up too gendered. IYSWIM

But it changes regularly

hales DS had a great day on Monday. We had loads of fun at the zoo. He walked a really long way! We had Currywurst and chips for lunch (basically a giant hotdog covered in ketchup) then we got the train back into town and had a quick coffee with a little treat. DS fell asleep while I carried him on my back and had about 10/15 minutes snooze until I woke him up on the train.

It was lovely. And the zoo was really empty! Which DS found a bit odd. But we went on the little boat ride and could see all the animals so i thought it was great.

Bag is packed, pressies wrapped and cards written for dds.
Tomorrow I fly!

WL where are you off to? And for how long?? Have a lovely time whatever it is.

We live 10 minutes from the local airport and when the kids drive me nuts I tell DH in just going to pop to the airport

I am currently on the train to the airport - myself and 4 girl fiends - happy 40th to us = long weekend in Palma! Back Monday afternoon. So excited!
When the kids are driving me nuts I often tell DH that I'm leaving home or putting them on eBay but have had to stop as even though she knows it's a joke, poor dd2 gets very upset about it.

Yup those are generally the options in this house. Either I need to get to on a plane or its to draft their eBay ad!

Although, in between being a giant pain the Arse and continual hard work 24/7 DS has moment of beautiful love and kindness. I know there is a sweet boy in there. We just need a bit more help for him to see more of it.
DD not an issue. She is the boss and there is no point trying to fight it

WL how was your weekend?

Nutella i'm going to ignore your currywurst comment as its driving me insane with Jealousy.

Beasty Shrek is one of my favourite movies ever. I even read the donkey in my head using shreks voice.

Pidj, H is a very touchy feely child as well, she plays with my hair and it drives me insane as every so often she twists it in a way that makes me wanna scream.

Its a year today since DSD came to live with us. The most stressful year ever that has had some incredible highs, is the way we are choosing to remember it. We had a special christmas like roast dinner to celebrate.

Wow hales! What a lovely way to put it and mark the date. You are amazing.
Weekend was brilliant, lots of laughter and relaxed eating and drinking, wandering the market and shops in a grown up fashion.
DH did brilliantly with dds, and dd2&3 have been chilled since I got back this arvo, dd1 is off on her school trip though. Roll on Friday!

Wow hales! What a lovely way to put it and mark the date. You are amazing.
Weekend was brilliant, lots of laughter and relaxed eating and drinking, wandering the market and shops in a grown up fashion.
DH did brilliantly with dds, and dd2&3 have been chilled since I got back this arvo, dd1 is off on her school trip though. Roll on Friday!

Crikey a whole year

hales I love that you celebrated it. Well done all of you! And here is to a better year for all of you

DD was so upset this morning that she couldn't go in the bike trailer to Kita but was going to Kita in Papa's car because I'm too lazy and fat it's too far to cycle to Kita. DH said she was not happy when he handed her over. Then he went outside to wave, she waved and then turned around and ran off to play, happy as! Hahaha poor DH. He was relieved that she was happy, but he could have done without the tears before hand

2 sleeps WL

Nutella my DN use to do that. I remember coming out crying myself one day because she was so upset, when i picked her up she told me she had, had so much fun.

Last night was a LONG night, H is full of cold so kept waking for a drink. DSD woke up at 2:30 with a headache and was quite upset, luckily she fell asleep after the painkillers kicked in. DN stayed over she woke at 5am for a wee and took half an hour to fall back asleep. Then H woke up and took an hour to fall back asleep, then the alarm went off at 7:30. We have sent DSD to school but i am expecting a phonecall to collect her. I'm still umming and arghing about sending H to Nursery.

How is she now hales?

We're all struggling with 5am wake up's, thanks to ds2. It's lovely that he sleeps through mostly now but I think everyone else was happier when it was only me being disturbed (every 2 hours)

Bless you tired people. T is still a bit hit and miss at night but getting less so - and as much as I will love a run of uninterrupted sleep, I will miss a little fuzzy head burrowing in! I toyed with the idea of banning the dds from our bedroom but I do love a big bed full of cuddles in the morning.

Just a quick "Hi" from me, I've not had a chance to read back at all, but hopefully will soon.

Stacks hello! Don't worry you have probably not missed anything of note

wl I would quite like a child free bed. At least a couple of nights a week. DH used to wish DS would come and sleep with us, I warned him to be careful what he wished for!
When does DD1 get home?

for everyone else.