July 2006 - toddlers, climbers and daredevils sign in here!

[Twinklemegan]

Thought it was time for a new thread folks.
Great news about your job Bloss. Will catch up with you all tomorrow. xx

well. Where do I start?

Annie, hope your in laws are behaving - homemade burgers clearly impressed, try like, oooh I don't know, a CAKE or something! They'll never recover! sorry just taking the piss. How's the student, have you corrupted him/her yet?

Flick - you do not need to worry if they are late or not - full make up made them late if they were - your job is to chill when MIL has Jacob, so just....CHILL! Whole story of when he had surgery is insane, god don't they realise how stressful that must have been for you guys?

Got moaned at by Dh at omigodhundredhours this morning - Toby woke up screaming (his default state at the moment) at 5.15am, woke H up, and then it dawned on Dh he was doing solo pick up, tea, bath and bed time today and tomorrow as I have training an hour away. I was 45 mins late this morning and will be again tomorrow as I can't drop the boys off till 8am. It is what it is. Amen.

HC - my job, despite hotting up BIG TIME, is the easy part of my week. fact. The longer I do it for, the more I believe this. I love being out, unencumbered, chatting, socialising, having coffee/wine/lunch with grown ups with children being the topic of conversation only if I or they choose it to be. I get butterflies on the way to collect my kids, I delight in showing off their photo, I get the kind of love wash only a mum will know about when I creep into Harry's room when I get home to tell him I love him and he replies with a sleepy "Mummeeee, you're home! I love you Mummy" before drifting off. Going back to work has saved my sanity and I hope I am a better mum for it.

Bloss

xx

Bloss - I completely get where you are coming from about working. I also think that the 3 days I spend at work are far far easier than the days I spend at home with Josh. It just takes me away from the ongoing feeding, changing nappies, entertaining, reading books etc etc - and I also love talking about him, I get that feeling when I am on my way to pick him up and I love seeing his little face light up when I arrive to take him home and he comes running over with his arms up saying 'cuddle' - but I am so in awe of SAHM's like you HC - to do it every day, every week etc - after 2 days with Josh I am so ready to get to work!

Flick - Bloss is right you know. You really shouldn't be getting worked up about these things. PIL's are here to help so let them and you put your feet up whilst you can before Sam arrives

Annie - I have this image of you training a student which involves you teaching them to switch the computer on and then showing them how to log on to MN I hope you are making the most of your PIL's visit and you are in the pub right now!

Hi to everyone else

I am officially on holiday from tomorrow for the week - DS is going to nursery and I am having some well-earned 'me' time for 3 days - and I am so looking forward to it. Long sessions at the gym, leisurely lunches, shopping, MN as long as I want without Josh shouting 'Gigis' (that is Thomas to you and me) at the computer over and over again until I cave in and log on to the Thomas website and play games.

x

Bloss-I know the feeling exactly when you go in to say goodnight and they say sleepily 'you're home mummy' and go straight back to sleep. Bliss.

I think the fact I hated my job as it had become 100% sales and I couldn't sell ice to an Eskimo put me off attempting to go back to work after Sophie was born. One day I will find the perfect job, well, I have it already with my little WW job. All I need to do now is increase the hours and the pay. If I put any more weight on I won't get paid at all!

HC
x

aaah thanks ladies - no not stressed or worried about them being late or anything like that - just v amused that mil HAS to go to football in full makeup and blow dried hair mind you it bucketted down so much on the way that she will have resembled a drowned rat when they got there

am relaxing so that's something, although jacob is wailing a lot this morning but mil is occupying him well!

drama yesterday afternoon - went to a playdate and basically on the way out my friend didn't catch the door behind me as i stepped forward (i thought she was there and we both thought the door was on the latch....) and the door slammed leaving her 2.4 dd inside! so fire brigade duly called and arrived very quickly, had to smash a front window to get in!

now my dilemma - it cost £360 + vat to fix as it was out of hours - i have offered to pay for it or at least pay the excess o ntheir house insurance if they can claim it on that and she has refused to take any money. i've offered and offered even again when i called last night to make sure it had all been fixed ok but she has said no. i don't want to keep approaching it as it will end up being an awkward thing - you know when someone keeps asking something and you get so fed up of answering till you're blue in the face? but equally even though it was both our faults i guess i do feel very guilty - any ideas?

anyway off to day assessment this afternoon after a pampering haircut, and then i'm braving the waxing lady tomorrow.......

xxx

Hello Ladies.

Flick, hope you are enjoying your pampering, and relaxing. Good for you and Sam! at the PIL story. Makes me think mine ain't so bad really, as they mean well. MIL doesn't wear much make up but she does fuss over every little thing, her hair (which always looks the same anyway) and changes her clothes for every different activity, eg one outfit for playing with the babies, another for going to the park, a different one for going to the pub, so if we go to the pub on the way back from the park, what a dilemma!!
Anyway I've been glugging through the wine the last couple of nights!
Re your friend, Flick, if she doesn't want any money then don't give it (she has insisted!) but maybe get her a gift of some sort as a kind of apology/ease of guilt! No idea what though.

Bloss, LOL at making a cake to impress!! baking isn't my strong point. Anyway MIL buys so many crap cakes from the pound shop or somewhere, there's quite enough crap in the house. Last night I impressed them by ordering a pizza online...

Oh yeah, my student!!! He did ok, quite well actually. He already knows how to use the computer, but prefers Facebook to Mumsnet. He told me I was a very calm and patient teacher!

Ceebee, didn't get to go to the pub yet, but we might this evening, and tomorrow DH and I are supposed to be going out and doing something together, but I don't know what yet. Nor does he. It might not happen...
Enjoy your time off now!!

Also in awe of you SAHMs. Mine drive me bonkers after a few days on my own with them. Work really is a doddle!!

HC, hope your head is better, and you are feeling ok. Is the weight thing related to the monthly migraine??

Wonder how Spin and Roshi are doing...

And Soph has gone quiet...

Hi All

Have been a bit useless about posting recently, having the house on the market is eating away at my powers of concentration!

Annie ? bummer about the pox, I guess it gets it over with though ? hope it?s well on its way out now. Sweeeet them getting into bed together, maybe try and encourage that one in the hope that you?ll get some peace lol at teaching your student to MN

Ceebee ? have a fab few days off! lol yes they do pick their moments for wanting attention don?t they, Emma usually does stuff like try to swing from the ironing board when I?m ironing.

Flick ? grrrrrr at the builders, hope things are better now. Good luck with the bootees, they sound great, let us know when your site?s ready Re your friend, do they drink wine (wonder why that one immediately sprang to my mind ) Maybe order a box or two and have it delivered, offering your commiserations on the window?

Kbaby ? sympathies re the restaurant, Emma?s just the same now, fine as long as there?s food on offer that she wants, otherwise just determined to go off and explore, and equally determined to have a tantrum if not allowed. Am really going to have to practice the art of distraction, it?s all new to me...

HC ? hope the migraine?s gone now. And I?m sure the (tiny!) bit of weight will drop off before long, all the running about you do.

Catchingzeds ? nice to hear from you, good luck for the 19th, let us know how it goes. And big congrats on your engagement

Twinkle ? how?s the house move??

Bloss ? so glad the job thing?s working out, you do sound MUCH happier. Aaaaaw to H !

Beadmum ? {{hugs}} what a horrible situation Does sound like they don?t make much effort or have some kind of issue, and probably feel guilty about it. Don?t know what to suggest but I guess it?s mainly down to your DH to make a decision about what he wants to do, hope you can work things out. Good luck with the house hunting, I?ve heard that the market in Scotland is quite good at the mo compared to England so you can hopefully get yours moving quickly.

Right ? I?m going to post this now, I haven?t got round everybody yet but will keep going!! Hope everyone?s okay in the gales ? I?m SICK of the whistling wind, it keeps waking Emma up, grrrrrrrr

xxx

Hey Pixel! Hope the house-selling goes well. Stress-ful.
LOL at Emma swinging from the ironing board!!

Like my new name!?! Just for this week!!

x

So - a quick update from the frontline of House Tidiers Anonymous -

Emma is fine, apart from a streaming cold and red snotty eyes again. Contributing to house tidying by following me around, ensuring that everything is returned to its rightful place on the floor...

Selling in this market is a bit of a nightmare - even if people are prepared to put in an offer, they are expecting to get HUGE discounts on the asking price. So am now spending lots of time worrying about house prices and compulsively trawling property websites.

She's learning colours now which is quite fun; and does have a stab at repeating most things you ask her to say, with mixed results. My favourite is her version of 'trousers' which comes out 'fuffs'.

Her eczema is much better since coming back off dairy, so will experiment with reintroducing it to see what happens.

She fell out of her cot yesterday - heard a great bump and a yell from upstairs, found her lying on the floor, having leapt the bars of the cot still wearing her sleeping bag Not sure what to do now, she hasn't attempted it since, so hopefully she has given herself a fright. There's no way of making it more difficult for her to climb out, and I'm not ready to put her in a bed yet, the thought of her wandering around in the night is just too scary. What is everyone else doing at the mo?

Well better get off, hope everyone's having a nice afternoon xxx

x post AnnieShamrock, like the name

annie love the new name!

yes spin hope you are all ok and roshi obv as well!

soph are you hanging in there ok?

pixel jacob hasn't tried to get out of his cot yet but he can hook his foot over the side of the bath when he is in it... we are moving him into a bed in probably 2 months time as we will put sam in jacob's cot after a couple of months. we are going to put a stairgate on his bedroom door to stop him getting out, particularly as he will be up in the loft and wandering around.....

blood pressure all ok so holding out till friday morning and the consultant

xxx

Hey all

Really busy day here, 2 lots of friends over (one morning, one afternoon) so it has been toddler central round here. Tantrums and snot, we love it .

Beds/Cots - DS is still in his cotbed with the sides on. He is in a sleeping bag and hasn't managed to swing himself over the bars yet (unlike his hurdling mother). We have a safety-gate on his door which I find handy for penning him in his room whilst I have a shower in the morning. We're thinking of swapping the bedrooms around so that he goes into the current spare room and I have his room as a proper office (as opposed to squatting in the corner of a room dominated by a kingsize bed).

Sleeping is pretty awful here at the moment (last lot of molars??) and he spends about half the night in our bed anyway.

Evening ladies

flick-tis a tricky situation and I would say that your offer has been declined so that is the end of the matter. Hope your consultation goes OK.

MaeWest-so DS is not hurdling yet? Give him time. Em didn't have her cotbed turned into a bed until she was 2 yrs and 2 months so think we will do the same when Sophie is a similar age.

Annie-yup, liking the patriotic name.

Pixel-poor Emma. Perhaps it was a one off. [hopeful emoticon]

Holby on soon so off to swoon over the newish consultants.

Hi to anyone I've missed.

HC
x

Ooh yes Holby City. Does anyone else find Mr Cullen very attractive or is that just me being weird? I can't resist a Scottish accent me (consequently DH is slighly worried now we live up here ).

Flick - how are things with you and Sam (and Jacob as well of course)?

Spin - if you're reading this hope you're all OK.

I'm totally with the WOHMs on it being soo much easier at work than at home. My days are a doddle compared with DH's. I love Aidan to bits but he is exhausting. And he's almost stopped his daytime naps altogether at the moment so DH just doesn't get a break at all.

Just two days to go until we get the keys (fingers crossed). We won't be moving in properly for a couple of weeks though. I know there's loads to do before we move in, but as we've only seen the place once I can't remember exactly what!

Hi to everyone I haven't mentioned.

Twinkle-it's the gorgeous American Mr Spence that I swoon over. Mr Cullen has a slightly yum side to him too-quite like the 'my office now' side of him. Oo-er!

Have a good day ladies.

HC
x

BTW Twinkle-sending you lots of good luck vibes for your house move.

HC
x

flik- Please chill out and stop stressing. Fingers crossed that sam will hold on for you.

No much to report here.
ds is still in his cot, prob look to move him into a bed aound his birthday. Im thinking of getting a bouncy castle for them both at easter, dont want any eggs and my matress cant take the bouncing any longer. Im sure it wont be long b4 ds comes a cropper and bounces off it! he had a bleeding nose yesterday because he jumped off the settee and landed face first on the floor.

Bloss- I just love the fact in work that even though I work 4 days a week I get the same amount of work and stress that a full timer would have and they wonder why im not doing as well as the other managers.

thank you all for telling me to chill out! unfortunately...... jacob is severely long sighted which is why he has started crossing his eyes as he is trying so hard to focus on everything so he has to have glasses. from as soon as possible until he's at least 12 years old.

dh wears glasses so we're not wierd people that have anything against glasses wearing but it's just broken my heart. he is such a dear little boy and kids can just be so horrible and so cruel, and this is something that he can only grown out of,(not that we would want eye surgery on him of course). and the lenses even the really finely ground ones are 3mm thick so thick thick thick for him

so we have to go and try and find some decent looking glasses for him on saturday.

o'h and we are back on the anti inflammatory medication for his bronchial tubes and if it doesn't stop in the summer they are diagnosing him with asthma.

it's just one thing after another for him at the moment poor little man.

apart from that all well in the flick household , and i have just made a lovely looking and smelling sponge cake to take to a play date tomorrow at the friends who i locked out so will decorate with lots of whipped cream and strawberry jam! unfortunately i want to eat it all now so will have to make do with some chocolate digestives and tea i think!

bil over for dinner tonight - he's in london for one night from south africa so that should be fun. mil now has the task of putting jacob to bed every night till she goes as i can't really bend over the cot side to put him in!

on the subject of jacob's glasses, the opthamologist was very surprised that he was still functioning as he is with such long sightedness so when he gets the glasses he's going to be unstoppable !!!

and any suggestions for first meal next friday night??? I'm thinking of marks and spencer dressed crab and parma ham and soft cheese with sourdough bread, washed down with a sip of white wine as of course i'll be pissed on any more than that! MIl will be busy at m&s methinks!

Flick - someone has just started a thread in Health about a 22 month old who is being fitted with glasses. Can understand why you're worried, it seems so young doesn't it? He'll be fine though I'm sure. I wore glasses for extreme short sightedness from the age of 5 (tho' I think my sight was bad a long time before that, it just went undiagnosed), and went onto contact lenses at 9 - I think lenses are an option even younger these days if that's something that you want - though he may be quite content with his glasses then of course!

Hi to everyone, will catch up properly tomorrow

flick-bless DS. Wearing glasses will help his eyes and his day to day life lots. IMO there seems to be far more children wearing glasses nowadays-I only have to look at the amount in Emma's Reception class so please don't worry too much there. My SIL has mild asthma and only uses her inhaler occasionally so hope the little man only has a mild version if at all.

As for the meal, sounds yummy. Are you allowed shellfish? Deffo go for a ready meal from M&S as you do not want to be doing too much with only 6 days to go!

Having a mini panic myself as I have to design a mini Easter Garden with Emma to be judged at school on Thursday. It can be either real flowers of painted paper flowers. Help!!!!!!! Any ideas gratefully appreciated as I am not in the least bit artisitic!

Hi to everyone else

Ciaou

HC
x

HC - You can lay a cereal box on its side and cut it in half to open it up, this will give you a walled garden. Then buy coconut and green food colouring mix it together to make green grass, paint the inside of the box with jam and sprinkle the grass to it, then make some flower borders out of chocolate shavings and buy those small flowers for dress making or even cake making flowers, glue them in the borders to have flower beds, then as a finishing touch add some small chicks.

I feel as if I could strangle both lo's today. DH is out for the rugby so I took them out to a play centre all morning and since weve been back they have just annoyed each other and me, DS hasnt napped so is unbearable. At the moment he is having a paddy because he was trying to climb on the settee but cant and when I offered to put him on he freaked out and is currently crying. And dd after being told numerous times to stop laying on me and putting her feet all over the laptop is still doing it. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

kbaby-how artistic are you? Dad has lent me a seed tray which I have lined with foil and am going to dig up some grass and stick some cuttings in it. Have bought a chick and some eggs to put somewhere. Liking your idea better though. Think I'll invest in some coconut and chcolate just incase.

HC
x

Hi Girls

What a drippy wet weekend, haven't been out or done anything (except slob around on the computer of course).

Mae - bet Dom's doing secret Mummy impressions - cot hurdling backwards and forwards in the night when you're not looking

HC - good luck with the garden, no inspirational tips I'm afraid but sounds like you're well on the way to creating a masterpiece! You'll have to post a pic.

Talking of pics we haven't had any for ages (that I can remember, but I am going a bit senile ) - will try and post some...

Kbaby - sympathies re overtired children and frigging rubgy, grrrrrr

Twinkle - good luck with the house move, v exciting!

We've accepted an offer on ours, but v early days yet, these things never seem to be straightforward.

Emma's 20 month birthday today, omg they're nearly 2 She has rediscovered the Teletubbies (or rather I have rediscovered them for her on dvd) and greets them even more ecstatically than Iggle Piggle - I must have indoctrinated her well by making her watch them when they were on cbeebies every day a few months back . She just loves that slightly creepy baby, when the sun goes down she shrieks and goes 'bye bye baby' over and over again, bless.

Hi to those I haven't caught up with for a while, Soph, Impy how are you doing?

Annie - hope those pesky IL's are behaving themselves, and happy St Paddy's Day!

Thinking of you Spin and hoping things are okay xx

Hi to everybody, sleep well xxxx

first of all i would like to say thanks for those lovely replies ladies, made me feel so much better

annie - how are you coping with the inlaws?

pixel - cant believe emma i thought the sleeping bag restricted them too much. has she done it again, hopefully it was a one off

mae - has the sleeping improved? any new teeth?

twinkle - congrats on the house, you must be so excited

kbaby - bouncy castle is sure to burn off lots of energy, good idea. agree with hc, you sound very artistic.

flick - u still hanging on? youve not been on for a few days

hc - how is the model going?

Things are going fine here now, we havent heard from il's so doesnt look like theyre bothered about being grandparents as surely theyd have contacted us by now to sort things out. Anyway we are not letting it bother us as dh has decided he wants nothing to do with them, suits me, we wont miss them as they only came in and out of our lives when they felt like it and that not great for charlotte.

Charlotte is coming on great, shes saying so many words now and repeating everything, still refusing to call me mama, i still get baba. Shes loving jigsaws at the moment and is still fifi obsessed, just hands me the remote control anytime saying 'fifi ta' then tantrum follows when she doesnt get it on so strongwilled now.

Went to view a house on friday night and we love it love it love it. Seeing mortgage advisor on thur to see how much we can get as more difficult with me being sahm, all based on dh's salary. House is within what we can afford depending on how much over the asking price houses are going for these days, it has slowed down so hopefully still within our reach.

Happy st patricks day everyone, enjoy the rest of your day xx

Happy Paddy's Day!!!

Here I am at work while the whole of Ireland is off out drinking... well I shall join them later! Almost didn't happen though! LONG STORY ALERT:
Last week I arranged to go out on Monday (that's today) with a friend who I meet up with every couple of months or so. We have a cheapy meal and a bottle of wine and then home. I got home on Wednesday evening and said to DH about it being Paddy's day. He had already pre-approved the date by text earlier. Then he went off on one saying WE should do something together, why wasn't he invited, so I suppose HE would be babysitting again as usual... Big long ruckus then in front of in-laws (well, within earshot!) So I stomped off and cancelled the night out and went to be early!
Next morning the in-laws took the babies out to the park, and me and DH were left alone, still fuming (can you see how pointless it was?!). Anyway, after a while (after stomping around doing all the washing etc) I suggested we go to the pub for lunch, without the others. So off we went, not saying a word to each other.
Then FINALLY we started talking about what was going on. We had a really good chat actually (and a really good lunch too!) and I think it's all ok now. I certainly don't feel repulsed by him any more. We've concluded it's all lack of sleep, we both need to be more thoughtful of each other, and this phase will pass as the children get better... He forced me to text my friend to rearrange tonight too!! Hee hee, see he knew he was being unreasonable.
So, while I wouldn't say things are rosy, things are much much much better.

Now if that wasn't long enough...

I'll be back later, I've just realised the time!!