November 2014 - the one where they test boundaries.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread ladies. Jump on board.

Half star congratulations

I was v poorly sat I couldn't even swallow own saliva was gross but spitting it out hugely worse as we went as planned to legoland DH offered to take boys on his own but we were meeting my family on sat there and I wanted to see boys faces as we had booked the Lego hotel which is amazing, rooms, food (not that I could eat it).

I ate for First time today (mash potato) since wed I seriously haven't been this Ill in years signed off work for rest of the week.

Ohhh halfstar we have just gone into yr3 and no more free dinners and making a packed lunch is a pain but he only ever ate jasvket potato at school I get ready to go to bed and then oh shit forgot ds1 lunchbox he is so bloody fussy as well apparently unless made n eaten at same time sandwiches are yucky so now he has ciabatta bread with butter on and ham sliced in a pot or slicedf chicken in a pot with chopped tortilla wraps (ffs) and then bunch fruit n carrots as he also apparently no longer likes crisps (apart from Pringles). Yes that is what bowing to your child's every whim creates no making up a batch ham sandwiches in freezer n grabbing one out each eve. They make their own at 8 right!?!

Congrats halfstar!!

eastmids hope you're getting some rest, sounds horrendous :(

I need some support and talking dow n! Dd had done 2 days and nursery no probs, today dropped her off and she was so upset, just weeping and asking to go home. I pulled her room leader in to cuddle her while I left but now I'm a wreck. I can't get over leaving her while she's upset...

Oh wow Halfstar, congratulations!

We are in Tuscany for holidays at the moment. DD has decided that angels, virgins and other religious characters are all fairies, so we are visiting churches more than usual to please her.

Just saw your post ladydolly. It's a horrible feeling, but dont loose your heart. She is in a new place, so it's normal she might cry at a drop off. DD has been in the nursery for 2 years now and there have been few mornings here and there she's been crying on the drop off even though she likes there.

Also totally fell off the thread!! Hi everyone!
Ladydolly and Half thanks for the namecheck :-D
Half congratulations!!!! great news!!
Lady I'm sure DD was distracted pretty quickly once you left, it is so hard leaving them when they're upset. She will settle in quickly I'm sure.
Anna great about the job and sounds like it is going well. I'm sure DS will get used to it soon! is DD at the same creche now? Happy birthday to her btw!

We're bumbling along well here. Twins are growing well - 20 weeks today! We found out at 16 week scan that they are two boys :-D. Have already been going through clothes, thank goodness almost all our newborn stuff is unisex.

We have to get our spare room / crap storage room ready for the babies which involves removing a fitted wardrobe and a little wall, then plastering, decorating, new carpet. We're going to replace the double bed with a sofabed (We'll need space for all the kind people who have offered to come stay and help us out once they're born!) and also need to move DD's cot, large chest of drawers and nursing chair in, and then need to buy her a toddler bed, wardrobe and smaller chest of drawers. Add to this we have NO ROOM to store any of the furniture purchases other than in the room it's planned for, so it is a military style exercise to get it all done. A LOT of decluttering going on too which is a pain when I can't lift much or get into the loft easily so it all has to wait til the weekends.

Our friends and family have been so generous with their baby stuff, and their time. My aunt who has twins (age 24 now) is coming over from Canada to stay and help for a while and my cousin has booked a room at the premier inn up the road for her and her 2 kids at Feb half term so she can take DD for days out. DH is taking 8 weeks parental leave end of April which is going to be a godsend, the 3-5 month stage was a frigging nightmare with DD!

DD is great. Potty training went well although after 6 weeks of virtual accident free she moved into the preschool class and started having accidents every day there - i think because all the kids were older so there are fewer toilet reminders. However a load of other not-quite 3 year olds have now joined, some still in nappies, so this week she has been back to dry again and hopeful it will stay that way.
Got to say though the success is down to her, we didn't start until she was telling us before she needed a wee.
She has come on in leaps and bounds since moving up to the preschool class. Finally can pronounce S, F, Ch, Sh etc so is at last understandable to people who don't know her well :-D
She is excited about the babies. My Dad was looking after her and was slightly shocked when she told him "The babies will grow and grow in mummy's tummy and then she will push them out her bottom"... along with slightly graphic demonstration with red-faced straining! We hadn't told her anything yet about how babies come out!! I assume she got it from potty training as we told her that the food in her tummy comes out of her bottom as a poo!!

Anyway sorry that was an essay. Missed you guys!!!

Hey moggle great to hear you are doing well sorting the house sounds like a hard job a top tip from me don't waste money on a toddler bed just buy a normal single ds1 never had one cot n into single at almost 3, ds2 had cotbed so turned into toddler bed bloody nightmare so narrow few weeks back into single and sleeps so much better and bed will last him til adult.

From my night nanny experience have twins in one cot side by side horizontally across the cot to start you can buy expensive dividers for this a rolled towel does same job then when too long do feet to bottom either end so heads come to middle most get 6mths INA cot together and makes life easier. Feed at same time even if means waking one whether breast or bottle feeding you will become dab hand at feeding both together. Remember someone will sometimes have to cry just fort a few mins you are one person with twins and a toddler...

A friend had twins when her son was almost 4 and she gave him 20p every morning to go and collect up the twins bottles from the night he felt like he was helping and loved money for his money box.

Unfortunately we don't really have room for a single bed in her tiny room. It'll be toddler bed (from eBay...) for a few years and then a cabin bed with a desk and storage underneath once she's a bit older...
Great twin tips!! I've heard they learn to wait for you quite quickly and it makes them a little easier going... hoping so...

So we wandered into an exhibition yesterday and DD started to shout that there was a Thomas the train. This is what she saw

strawberry She is brilliant!! I love it.
We stayed at an airbnb last year which had a painting of a woman in it that DD insisted was one of her grandparents, it did look like a beautiful, younger version so said grandparent was chuffed when we sent her a photo.

Tears at the nursery continue, she's fine when I pick her up, but it's heart wrenching.

ladydolly I've got impression your DD is very chatty and vocal, have you tried to talk to her about what's upsetting her and why is she crying? You might get a good chance to answer any of her anxieties?

Few weeks ago we had double dentist appointment with DD first thing in the morning. She had checkup and then I had hygienist and DD were around watching. Then we were heading to the nursery and me back home to get working. She was moaning all the way she didn't want to go to nursery, but once we were there she was all smiles, waved me off etc. On the pickup I was told that she had been crying really bad for almost two hours when I left until she fell asleep. :( I asked why she was crying after being such a star at the dentist (she opened the mouth and was sat fascinated during my appointment, prises all around). She told me she was unhappy so she cried. But impression I got from overall events, she really enjoyed at the dentist and thought we were having a fun day out, the nursery came as a blow. We were talking more with her, asked if she doesn't like in the nursery anymore etc. After all she confirmed she liked there, she just felt sad that particular day. The following day she was absolutely fine.

strawberry you're right, she's normally very articulate (for a toddler least!). I have tried to talk to her about it but she's very non specific and just says she want's to stay home, no talk of going back to the childminder. They said she gets upset at transition time, sitting down for lunch, washing hands after messy play. I wonder if it's because at the CM she was in charge, she was bossy and the biggest one so she kind of led the activities and at nursery she has to do what the group is doing to a certain extent. They said it's getting better so I'm hopeful. She'd also had 3 weeks at home/on holiday/with my sister and her family so going back to a routine was a blow.

I think I'm slightly more emotional about it because I'm pregnant too, very, very early days but hormones already going crazy, feeling sick and teary!

But babyberry sounds perfectly in touch with her feelings, isn't it amazing how complex our little people are already?

congrats ladydolly! xxxxxx

Woohoo ladydolly! Congratulations!

The fact of not being the biggest one might be important. DD has a patch of not wanting to go to nursery every time they move her to the next room where she suddenly isn't the biggest one anymore. And that considering the nursery move her together with other four close buddies she has acquired during last four years. Just give her some time, I'm sure things will quickly work out.

Babyberry does surprise me with some pearls regularly. Today we went to an outlet for a spot of shopping, went into a menswear shop where she pointed to a male mannequin in an appreciative tone "nice body". Wtf! I swear, we don't do that kind of comments at home and have no idea where that came from.

Congrats Lady

That's hilarious strawberry they are funny and embarrassing sometimes

Having Two boys a lot of talk is poo, bums and willies and is obviously v funny.

Congratulations halfstar and ladydolly

ladydolly hope your DD is settling better at nursery.

We are plodding on as usual here. Another terrible cough is waking DD up 4 or 5 times a night, but I haven't died of exhaustion yet!!

Ohhh happy ds2 has that horrific cough at the moment and sleep is poor had it nearly 2 weeks now !UST be nearing the end as its a lot looser (sorry grim)

Well ds2 has eye test review at hospital yesterday seems specsavers royally screwed up in the giving metal frames that were unsuitable another branch realising this and getting us baby frames again, in the sharing of prescription details from one store to another he has had the old prescription for past 9mths, hospital were saying why is he wearing his old glasses and after much discussion and the poor girl getting head optometrist this is what we concluded.

I have raised it with specsavers they are all franchises so no head office as such but let's say both branch managers are mortified and have launched an investigation one rang me at 7pm yesterday.

Trouble is they have a selection baby glasses and should be best place to go independent opticians will order in branded baby ones but the eye voucher is worth £30 and the glasses are £150 and when they get broken at nursery we would pay for repairs, specsavers are free with free repairs plus a free spare pair so can see why people use them but def a conveyor belt approach

Congrats Halfstar and ladydolly! And so happy you're going to be getting so much help moggle! Wow it's a baby boom!

DD has slept through the last three nights so fingers crossed she's improving and DS never wakes up any more unless he's sick (we did have some unfortunate 3am projectile vomiting last week - the poor bedroom carpet will never be the same again)

DS seems to have grown up a lot recently. His vocabulary has had another burst and he's very good at saying the proper words in sentences now, like instead of saying "Daddy you make the light", he now says "Daddy you need to turn on the light". It's making life a lot easier to be able to talk to him so easily. He's in a big "helping" stage - all he wants is to have a job to do and he's gets all self important. So he helps with the washing up every night and he helps with DDs nappy. When DH or I go to work in the morning he's all business, "I'll get your shoes/bag/coat" and he totters down the hall all important, it's adorable. It occasionally veers into bossing us about of course, but i nip that in the bud pronto.

Still no sign of potty training. At least he has stopped protesting nappy changes so we're just forgetting about it until he's ready again.

We were so proud of him this weekend, we visited family and he had to sleep in a strange big boy bed and he was fantastic. He was all excited about it and was asleep by 7.30 and slept all night on his own. I almost burst with pride! He also had to sit through a V V long church service and was good as gold. I was very smug till he started calling it "the castle" very loudly! Rather revealed what heathens we are at home!

He doesn't have that many tantrums anymore but I have to bring him to his 3 yr old Opthalmology check this morning so we'll see what a disaster that is!

Anna hope eye check went OK, for first time ds2 yesterday sat with hands clamped over his eyes said no I am going for pizza and cake, we were it was DH birthday and we didn't expect to be at hospital 2hrs they were running so late and he had had enough. Much bribery of stickers and promise of paw patrol chocolate lollies worked.

strawberry that is HILARIOUS!!!!

The glasses process sounds so frustrating, how annoying for all of you.

Hoping everyone's dc's are feeling better, it's this time of year isn't it? They all get the back to school bugs.

DD had her first non crying drop off this morning, she just said 'you go to work now' and waved me off. I got outside an bawled my eyes out and rang DP to tell him. He was like 'that's great but I'm about to go into a meeting...' these hormones are no joke, I swear I wasn't this emotional with my first pregnancy!

Those of you with older DC and anyone else with any suggestions, how do you deal with this:
DD1 is in year 2 at school, and has quite a lot of homework - reading for at least 10 minutes everyday, spellings to practice everyday, longer piece of work to do over the weekend, maths every other week which we haven't had yet so I don't know how long that will take. Trying to fit it all in around work is a nightmare, and trying to fit it in around DD2 is a problem. DD1 can't do any of the work without an adult to listen to the reading, prompt and encourage with the other work, but DD2 constantly interrupts, cries because I am not paying her all the attention, bothers DD1 to play with her instead, so DD1 can't concentrate. I try to distract DD2, give her some colouring or something to do as her 'work' but it doesn't work for more than a couple of minutes. I have limited success with putting DD2 in front of a film or CBeebies, but then DD1 cries that it's not fair that she doesn't get to watch and rushes through her work without paying attention so she can. Is there a solution I have not thought of? Having one parent per child and one on one attention isn't possible, because I am often at work for much of the weekend or DH wants to do his hobbies (I include having a nap as one of his hobbies!) when I am at home. Help!

Happy its shite isn't it, ours is all done after ds2 goes to bed he is in bed at 6.30/7 and ds1 at 7.30/8 or was done in naptime at weekends but that is no more. We struggle but family time is more important than another shitty school project that no one gives a second glance so yep sometimes we didn't do it, reading n maths yep we do.

Make some crap out of all of your recycling bin to resemble this half term learning journey - nope

Yep I did make paper maiche astronaut helmet in reception when ds2 was 6 weeks old and make a sock Cheshire cat in yr2 things that could be kept and worth spending time on.

See what you unleashed a full on rant

Oh god, making stuff out of recycling after a full days work doesn't sound like fun even with a single child never mind while there is a toddler tormenting everyone in the background. Under which subject do they pass the astronaut helmets?
Wouldn't it be better if they let children go to nursery and do BS all day long for another year and start a school at the age of 6 or 7 where they would do proper subjects and syllabus?

So we have been doing the potty training this weekend. Over last week DD had started to ask to go on potty and have twice done a massive poo on it. Friday afternoon I took her home after the nursery and we went nappyless. First night accidents every hour, Saturday we had to go out for several hours, so put the nappy on while out and about. Saturday night there were still accidents, but it was obvious she was trying, just couldn't make it in time. Today mainly at home and she has started to get it. She will be going to the nursery without a nappy, but with six spare change in her bag. Just in case. Also nursery have suggested we can bring her own potty if that makes things easier. Got a spare one with minions stickers on since DD seems to be a big fan of them now. I don't even want to think about the state I will find her tomorrow at the pickup....

Thank god for Peppa Pig and Amazon prime instant video! This week DD1 has to make a poster encouraging people to read a favourite book. She has rubbed half of it out and is currently digressing by reading the book (fortunately she has chosen a fairly short picture book). Meanwhile DD2 is watching Peppa and not disturbing her. We still have reading and spelling practice to do though.

DD2 went to visit the pre-school room at nursery on Wednesday, and apparently liked it so much she stayed all day. She seems to be really looking forward to starting there later in the month.

Happy I feel your pain ds1 concentration span is shite one reason we enrolled him in karate over summer to improve concentration and confidence.

I have attached this week homework it was pretty open as around bodies and have had 4 weeks to do a few bits of course we have left it til now. There is a written bit that goes with saying what happens when you eat!

DH had to take ds2 in garden as he was suddenly feeling v helpful!!