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

[Barbeasty]

Spangly new thread.

Geoffrey I'm sure the teacher is just offering some tips to help H learn a pen grip. At least I hope so

WL sorry about the birthday bed tradition... Perhaps it will only run up to a certain age?? DD sounds like she was very grown up about the fish tank. Bless her.

DS is gripping crayons and pens in a more developed way, I'm guessing he has picked it up from the bigger kids. He learns so much by watching.
Next week they have some "Waldtage" at Kiga - they are off to play in the woods for three days I know DS is going to love that! I can't wait to hear about what they will get up to. Even the staff have said that they expect DS is going to have he time of his life. I'm very pleased that they know him so well.

I didn't mean it to sound like the teacher was forcing H to write her letters. She had good intentions as H is getting really frustrated by it sometimes. She is only trying so hard to do it as DN has just learnt to write and identify letters. That makes H doggedly determined to do it.

How did your bed share go last night WL?

Nutella that sounds like an amazing few days and it is nice that the nursery staff know him so well.

I have shared a post on fb for everyone, but in other news, i took H to see the Opticians in the hospital today as she has a lazy eye and they have said she needs glasses both to help the lazy eye and also as her vision isn't what it should be. They said the glasses would more than likely be for life and if we were to have more children there is a high chance their eyes would be the same. So tomorrow we are going to choose some glasses for H, she is thrilled and can't wait. Shes starting on a lower prescription than she needs and they will change her lenses to stronger ones in about 6 weeks. I can't wait to see how beautiful she looks in glasses.

Hales one of DS' little friends at Kiga started wearing glasses recently. Little kids in glasses are sooooo cute! I like that at Kiga they are pretty relaxed about it and the kids can leave their glasses with the teacher/staff on a desk when they don't want to wear them.

I'm putting myself down on the list to offer lifts to and from whatever wood/forest they are going to. They need the parents to pitch in and help because they don't have access to a bus. It'll be interesting to see where they are and I can't wait to hear about what they will get up to. Poor DS was so tired today he fell asleep on the sofa, sitting up watching telly. the little Bugger just needs to sleep an hour or so longer in the morning and we will all be happy!

(haven't figured out how to translate the name of a Kindergarten trained person. I suppose they are a cross between nursery staff and primary school teacher, but with at least 2 staff members to 25 kids )

hales so much greatness! Totes agree with nutella - littlies in glasses are the cutest. H can hang out with me - I got glasses last year after a lifetime of wanting them! I so wanted them at school but was never brave enough to fake the test! Is her eye sight problem a genetic thing then?
nutella playing in the woods is brilliant! Good for mind body and soul.

The sleepover was fine - dh went in her bed so there was enough room by she's a noisy fidgety sleeper so woke me up a few times but bless her was sitting up reading quietly when I woke up this morning.
I was also a bit harumphy as it's a few mins that dh and I have together where we chat about stuff and just feel close - I actually missed the old goat! In a crazy busy world it's just nice to fall into bed together.
Next week it's dd2s bday so her turn in my bed - not quite sure where dh will go as she's got a cabin bed and he's a great big 14.5 stoner!!

Nutella, i bet when you take them they are all excited and when you bring them home they will all be knackered.

WL i hope you enjoyed this mornings chat with Dp and you'll have to get some pictures of him in Dd2s cabin bed for future memories.

H is so excited to go and choose her glasses.

Ah hales she will look awesome in glasses! I have to wear glasses especially to drive in fact I'm long overdue a check and am going on Monday. I'll get the prescription then buy from glasses direct for half the price.

Dd has to dress up as a Victorian child today to celebrate her schools centenary she looked so cute!

I've just done the 30 day shred I've done it before but I've put on a stone in last year or two so really need to work on my wobbly bits not sure I'll find time to do it much but I'll try...

Hales Specsavers have some cute gruffalo glasses, DD was disappointed not to need them!

I had mine done recently so got r done - whole family of short-sighted folk - he was pretty ticked off not to get any too

She has chosen some plain pink frames. She really looks beautiful in them. Beasty we saw some Minnie Mouse ones on the specsavers website which she loves. We have told her we will get her them if she wears her glasses all the time, like she is suppose to. She has to have the lenses changed in 6 weeks anyway as its quite a strong prescription so they are introducing it slowly to her. Her Nursery teacher made a huge deal about it with her which made her even happier.

tangled I did the shred this morning too!! Jinx!

WL day two done! Ds had me up so early I thought I'd get it done then I did day two of the ab challenge.

tangled I didn't do it today as I did a really rough box fit class yesterday and a kettle bells class today (I am super spoilt and have a great free gym at work so can work out at lunch!). Will do it tomorrow though.

Well the wearing of her glasses is going to be a very slow process. She wears them and then comes up with a reason to take them off. Then it takes a lot of bribary to get them back on.

hales the therapist recommended this tip for encouraging good behaviour and I find it works really well. When DC does something good you praise them, but only a little "well done, good job wearing your glasses today/this morning/ while we were doing x activity"

then you tell DH or someone later in the day:

"DC wore their glasses while we did x. They kept them on the whole time and were really good"

So then DH/gran or whoever says "oooohhhhh well done DC, that's really good"

Basically the kid joins up the dots that you all think they're great when they do something good. Without too much direct praise, which they can forget quickly and easily.

Obviously you would use whatever language and reaction you naturally use. It's just gentle reminders for them of good behaviour. I always notice when I do this with DS that he listens quite intently to what I'm telling DH.

I hope that makes sense. It's a marathon, not a sprint!.... Sadly

Plus I can imagine putting them on, off and away is all quite a novelty at the moment. And wearing them won't feel natural for a while. So I think wearing them at all without a fight is progress!!

We've done that today and its worked well plus when she takes them off i leave her for a while until i remind her to put them back on.

I have been burning papers on a wood stove this afternoon, so it just smells like a bbq to the neighbours and we haven't got ash flying about. I have added more fuel to it and a flame balled up and flew out and has shinged (sp??) my hair. I now have some very short pieces of hair and it smells so bad xxx

I added the kisses accidentally, sorry.

hales I still can't wear my glasses for too long without taking them off as they annoy my head over my ears! I guess it takes a while to get used to them.
I'm exhausted - dd1 and I did a bikeathon today - for some unknown reason I thought the short course was 8 miles - turns out it was 13.37, and then we had to ride 4 miles home! Bless dd1, she coped really well and really enjoyed our day alone together.
The fact that I went to bed at 2am after a night out with the girls might have something to do with my knackeredness. Thank god I'm not drinking so at least haven't been hungover.

To add to MrsNut's genius suggestion, I sometimes extend it by phoning my mum/mil/daddy at work to say "do you know what r just did?" Or taking a picture to WhatsApp.

Glasses hurting are glasses that don't fit. Any optician should twiddle them a bit for you. I don't function without mine - can barely make tea let alone shop or drive - so taking them off isn't an option here!

WL Geoffrey is right. Go back to the optician (or another place) and get them fitted properly. I had mine re-fitted recently and they ended up too tight. It was a week of sore ear before I could make it back to get them sorted. Most annoying is when they lay them on the table to check that the frame is square. That doesn't help, my ears and eyes are not in a straight line!

Fortunately I'm loving contacts at the moment

And I like the idea of ringing someone. I will keep that for when I need a trump card

I'm glad the tip is useful. It definitely works for us.

I want to go back to the therapist lady, but I don't feel we have a need to at the moment. Which is definitely a good thing. But she was brilliant. She loaned is a book about behaviour problems and the best lesson I took from that was to praise effort. Success is great but effort is really important.

They're not too tight, I just don't like the feel of them, same with sunglasses. They have quite wide arms and I think I might be better with skinny lighter weight ones. They might look a bit grannyish though!

Dd2 is 6 tom, another bedtime guest!

Happy Birthday to Dd2 WL.

H has been off nursery yesterday with a temp and complaining of belly ache but as the day went on she vastly improved. I gave her Calpol and Nurofen to keep her temp down. She has woken the same this morning so i am undecided about Nursery at the moment, DN had this bug last week.

Nightmare - flat tyre on the way to work! Have tried deploying the emergency repair kit but it didn't work. Currently awaiting rescue by fil. Argh!

Did you get rescued WL?