Wilkie- If they are staying for the day because you need them for Childcare, I guess you just have to grin and bear alot of it, but maybe you could talk to MIL on you own and say in passing how nice you find it having time on your own with J and how he loves the attention. That you think she would really enjoy seeing how different he is one-to-one, especially when you go out and he is seeing new things.
So dont say 'why dont you come on your own sometimes' but just gush about how good it is and hope that she decides she wants to spend time on her own with him.
RE the going out, maybe even say that you read something/were told by someone how important it is for children's development to spend time in a variety of surroundings, even if it is just the shops. That when we are walking about doing mundane things we dont see the little things that they see and get excited about like a red ball/a boy running/picture of a dog in the dog food aisle. Just examples but you get my drift.
I have always found that the indirect approach has worked better with my MIL, as I am not good at confrontation and neither is MIL. It just creates a big elephant in the room (is that the right metaphor?) that does not leave for ages and you end up being the baddy.
Not sure if that helps and I often find that when I am stressed about my MIL, I have a rant to somebody else and I feel heaps better. Hope it feels better soon.
Pink- Poor A Hope he is feeling better tomorrow and has a good night.
Shimmer how was your first day back?
Ruth has suddenly become monstrously hungry all the time! She downed her afternoon milk in less than 20 secs today. Came in room. Gave her her milk. Walked to kitchen to pick up my cup of tea. Came back. All gone!
She has eaten almost as much as Luke today and still wanted more. Its just been gobble gobble all day.
She only has two half teeth but it does not stop her eating all sorts of hard food. Just kind of gums it til it is mush. And to think I was worried she would not feed herself