MAY 07 Post natal - This time a year ago it was all just beginning, look at us now...........................

[Mrsjaffabiffa]

Morning........

ok, so you get a large swiss roll for the body of the train, cover in apricot jam, cover with ready to roll icing, get a mini roll cover it and stick it to the body with more jam to make a funnel, make (or buy!!) a basic loaf cake, chop two small sections from the front of the loaf, cover them with icing and 'glue' to the body one on top of the other to make a cabin, scoop out inside the rest of the loaf and cover to make a truck. Stick suitable small wheel-type biscuits/sweets to the outside and fill the truck with sweeties. You can get icing in tubes if you want to add 'detail', but personally I always run out of steam at this point Sounds easy

I've got a book like this somewhere that has really helped, the ladybird cake on the front of this one looks quite straightforward too...

Hi all thanks for the kind thoughts.

It went well today quite sad as there was only a few people there but it was nice to catch up family that I havnt seen for a while.

My DP had his exploratory injections today and it seemed to work saw him this evening and he was pain free for the first time in ages so they are going all guns at it next Monday and shoving the electrodes in to deaden his nerves. Then hopefully we might not have any more hospital trips for a while, fingers crossed.

What is all the talk of luteal phase and am I just being thick that I have no idea about all of this. I prob am and thats how I got up the duff last time,

Cam the cake looks fab, well done.

LG&T have been there with the food shop and card not working absoloutely mortifying bet your DH got a bollo*** when you got home.

oh and have been thinking all this talk of meet ups etc. What do you all reckon to some sort of midway between us all maybe John O Groats for a Chrimbo/send Cam off on her adventures meet up?

testing testing testing

humph - I have set up my page and even got a photo on it and I can't make it appear. What's the magic word? (and don't all chorus "please" in true parental style!)

woohoo done it done it done it!!! I can now splash pics of my little darlings all over the place
Good night all

I am nearly crying at the thought of having to do Tescos twice.

Tried A again this morning (having been up 4 times in the night) with some pear and she nearly had my hand off. Hahaha.

She's trying to crawl. I'm going to have to baby-proof. She's up on her hands and knees, belly off the floor and rocking back and forth. She's even got so far as lifting each knee up, but hasn't worked out the connection to the hands so is going absolutely nowhere. She just rocks there shouting at everything.

Better call an electrician. We have extension cables and all sorts of dangerous stuff all over the living room.

Cam the cake looks fab!
Sky your little man is gorgeous.
LG&T poor your having to do the shopping twice. Its just bearable on my own without 2 kiddies.
TYG well done to A. Ella can get up on her knees and rocks but we havent figured out the knee lifting yet.
MrsJB wow your sis edd seems to have come round really fast. Dont envy her on the turning front.
SOH how exciting that you are going to go and stay with the G&T's.

All this talk of AF's must have triggered mine off Fair enough it was due but not in the middle of the night. Luckily i did have supplies as i dont think my brain would have been as clever as SOH and thought to raid the first aid kit. This is the 3rd one i have had and I htink by the next one i should be back in the same cycle as before. They came back when E was 4mths and the next was 6wks later and this one was 5 weeks. I do prefer not having them! Although am not getting pg again so i guess i am stuck with them until the menopause!

Dh went up to London last night as he has meetings for 2 days and i was quite worried as to how much sleep i would get. J wakes up 1-2 times a night as does E but never at the same time, so was expecting not to get much sleep. Luckily (well maybe not) E woke at 2.30am and J woke minutes later. Got E back to sleep and brought J up with me and slept til 7.15. E woke 15 mins later. So very pleased with that. Managed to get me and J dressed and E bf'd and all out the house at nursery by 8.20am. Got back gave E her cereal and she is now back asleep . Am hoping for the same result tonight.

I like the idea of a big meet up. Somewhere in the middle-ish. MrsJB you will have to sneak over

how exciting TYG, A is trying ever so hard to crawl gets up and looks around wiggles his bum and shouts then falls down again I keep looking at our telly area and thinking its like a childs playground of cables and plugs, might just set up an exclusion zone of barbed wire to keep A away from it

Question for all you supermums thats have thrown parties for the kiddies. I am having this party for J on Saturday and havent ever done one before..... I am trying to think of games that 18mths-3year old kids will play..... So far i have pass the parcel. I have 24 kids coming and thought i might do 2 parcels so that the game doesnt take all day. Just been told that the lovely Nemo Castle that i had booked has been damaged and they only have a Harry Potter one...... do you think the kids will mind?

I only have them for 2 hours so dont want too much. Will take some bits from here to play with: Garage, Cars, ride ons etc

Any ideas gratefully received

the last bday party we had was a 4th one (obviously!) and I found that even at that age they were not particularly keen to play games - they don't really have the attention span - next year perhaps. If you are doing pass the parcel then it is a good idea to have more than one parcel because they are not v patient! I think that if you take the ride on cars etc plus have a load of balloons for them to run around with then you should be fine. Encourage parents to stay and then they can deal with their own child. Singing songs with actions and dancing can be popular too.A castle is a castle be it nemo or hp - they'll be happy.
Do the food relatively early on (ie after an hour) because that is what a lot of them get excited by and it also means that they sit down. It is worth setting up a table/table cloth on the floor for them to eat at because then they don't run around and it uses up time!! Don't put cakes etc out straightaway or all your sandwiches will be ignored. If you are looking for going home pressies/prizes then Tescos do lots of v cheap bags of small cars etc

Oh - and put a large bottle of wine in the fridge for when you get home!

Love the cake cam.

Pic of your boys is gorgeous anneme.

Crawling TYG, wow! C doesn't even like being on his front still but has started bottom wriggling from the knee - don't know what he thinks he is going to do when he gets down there!

Good luck with the party am. Don't think we had one that big at that age but I agree with anneme, don't think you will need too many structured games.

Crawling? Hang on a sec, we have only just mastered rolling over in this house Very laid back my J. Gosh some of the babies could be on the move very soon. DS1 was up on his feet and off by 6.5 months so baby Ella could be following!

Good luck with the party April, I agree with the others, forget the games, they will love just running around, any kind of bouncy castle is always an excitement and lots of balloons and music. You will have a ball I am sending ds1 over as we speak!!

Dh is off to Kenya on Sunday until Dec 14th A last parting christmas meet up somewhere middle-ish would be great fun, lets do it.

J has decided food is no longer fun...

Let's see Cam off in style... that would be great!

S is only just rolling from front to back - and then he cries because he bangs his head - crawling/sitting etc is beyond us at the moment - thank goodness!

at going...

Here's a suggestion, what about this place? Is it middle-ish enough? We have been before and dc love it, and if we met on a Saturday (am I being too controversial??) all the siblings could come too, so that Hugs could make merry with lots of other little beasties boys and girls

at you going too Cam.

No crawling here, thank god, I love it when they are crawling as it looks very cute, but gee it's hard work and a bloomin nightmare here with our cold tiled floors everywhere.

That looks v good Cam. Sats can be iffy for us (DH sometimes works and he is chief driver) but I would def be up for giving it a go.
OOOO - how exciting!

will you be over MrsJB soon to visit your dsis and new baby? Good luck with her breech, I hope hes for turning. Whats her MN name?

I am excited about going, I just am at leaving here and starting all over again for the billionth time, in the last 10 years I have lived in London, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, London, Cameroon and Somerset in a total of 8 different houses I feel a need to stay in one place for a while

Xmas Meet up thread here

I won't be over before Christmas Cam. Just can't get away to see her.

Hello, I am no longer a Krispy Kreme virgin. Had to "pop" down to Guildford last Wednesday and popped into Tesco for a comfort break and saw a Krispy Kreme display. Nearly rang you LGT to ask which ones I should go for but in the end decided to buy the mixed dozen.

Thanks for your advice re weaning. Have tried G on baby rice this week and he seemed to move it round his mouth and swallow it but have not got organised on the veg front yet. He has a bit of a cold at the moment but we are seeing his consultant later today so hopefully they will give him a once over.

I am trying to catch up but I'll post replies up to where I have read and attempt to catch up later. Hope you are all well.

Hi Lupins, the little ones are so straightforward with things and matter of fact aren't they, DD really does help. Nursery staff took me to one side yesterday though as DD had been a bit worried about Bens flowers yesterday. Might be linked to us having a big bunch of flowers in the house as our 7 year anniversary at the weekend.

NOBSB thanks for the good wishes.

LGT let me know if you want to come to Center Parcs at the weekend but it is the Sherwood one and having driven down to Guildford last week I appreciate it is a long way, but if you are gadding about this way anyway would not be so bad. Let me know, as long as I know the day before you are due to arrive will be okay. May not check email when there so give me a ring if you are "popping" up.Sorry you are were missing H gald you now have hime back.

PJ Sorry your holiday was so pants, hope L is better and rash has cleared up. It probably will have by the time I get to the end of this tthread. You are not pathetic. {Stern smiley} Don't worry about the clingy mum bit, it will not be long before they are pushing us away, I say enjoy it whilst we can. Any health concerens panic us it is just human nature to want to make everything in our DCs world perfect and hate to see them suffer.

HDWP Thanks I never thought boys could be beautiful thought they should be handsome but G has convinced me I was wrong. (proud mummy smiley)

M2G hopefully we will be in just after Christmas. Things have really gone fast but apparently now it will slow down as the plasterers start next week. I don't want to move in to soon and it be damp.

AnM have you put pics on yet as I can't access them if you have. I love taking tha back seat with DD as DS needs a feed etc but think DH is cottoning on now about my tactics.

AL hope work is okay and you are managing to get a hot cup of tea at last.

ApM you look gorgeous with the new hair cut. Sorry to hear about your holiday traumas.

JW Great pics. It might be worth getting your wipers checked as well as they sometimes don't work as well on a new windscreeen. Can you tell I have had a new windscreen every year for the last 4 years. So sorry to hear about your Grandad.

BBB Great pics

Hi GB hope you are well.

MID DH also thinks I have DDs room too cold and moans all the time as he likes to have heating on and sit around in shorts.

MKG Hope the house buying is going ok. Sorry DH is being a twonk. My DH has been a bit of a so and so
lately - he is so grumpy but he stopped smoking (40 a day man) in early August and has been a miserable begger ever since. We have talked about it this week though and he is a lot better. You need to find some common ground and see if you want to save what you have or throw in the towell and not waste any more of your life with someone who does not deserve you.

12YG Glad the christening went well even if M&S did screw up. Sorry to hear about your camera and purse getting nicked.

Mrs JB how you doing

Hi Bef its a begger isn't it this real life, I can't keep up either then darent post as don't mention everyone then it goes on another week and before you know it a month has gone by.

SkyTV Just realised you are only in Lincs will have to meet up - I used to commute to Lincoln every day and am only in North Notts A57 here I come. (sorry rather presumptuous thinking you might want to get together with sporadic MNer)

Hi Scooter hope you are doing okay and get online soon. Don't forget next time you are up North visiting pop in for a cuppa.

PM glad you had a good holiday.

Hi MTCM

Hi JLT

Can't remember who started on contractions but this time round were more painful as waters going started labour, went from 0 -3/4 cm in less than an hour. With DD waters were "bulging" but must have been cushioing things quite niucely as managed on Paracetamol and tens machine.

AFs were a bit worse after DD had always been quite light but were "proper ladies ones after" albeit I only had 4 before conceiving the DTs, hoorah for extended BF. Sorry iof this appears to be gloating to the BF mums whos AFs have naughtily returned.

Have registered for secret santa this year as missed out last year so sorry for whoever lands with me.

Okay still got a week to go in the catching up stakes so please do forgive me if I have not mentioned/replied to you yet but alarm has just gone off to remind to get to Gs consultants apt so will try to catch up later. Also in my confused state I may have replied to some of you twice with this changing names shenanigans.

I must try harder to stay on top of MN
I must try harder to stay on top of MN
I must try harder to stay on top of MN

PS please forgive typos as am not reading through or will be late and do not want to lose this message.

Hats off to you CM..... How do you do it? I can never remember to mention everyone when I haven't posted for a while. It doesn't matter, I'm sure we don't get offended if we don't get a mention.

Myself and the jaffalings are all fine thankyou. You sound chirpy but as busy as ever. Hope you and your lovelies are well. xxx

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no. That Cotswoldy place is 3hrs and 28 minutes away from me so Google Maps informs me. That's a whopping 160 miles. I am not missing another meetup. We are meeting here as it is just up the road from me. That's final. I have spoken. If you dare disagree I'll get M to sit on you. She's big.

You have had due warning.

wow charley well done on that catch up!

SOH............. that place is 3hrs 40mins from me! The one Cam suggested was 1hr 40mins......... me thinks we need to get our thinking caps on