March 06 - the other thread ran out of space!!!!!

[laundrylover]

Oh no - the thread ran out of space so couldn't even post a link!!!

Let me know when you find it ladies.......

oh so do I Caddy, so do I...Very likely I will be sick on the plane and in Singapore, but hopefully not too bad...I will go to the Gp when I get back to the uk and ask if I can take anything, just for the plane trip. Very happy though - was a bit of a shock as literally just started 'trying'.

We will be in Paris from this Sunday, leaving on Thurs morning and heading away from you to the coast I'm afraid. Still in Loire tomorrow...?

HI caddy. you all sorted and working properly again yet?
Hi CatJ you must be mad.
LL- this particular tummy bug I can't blame on anti bac brigade. I WAS working on an out door show before the weekend, on a muddy, dog shitty, human pissed on patch of grass. I do try and keep my gloves on while handling cable and wash before eating etc but sometimes something slips through.

Preschool. well it seems out local one (school nursery class) is not local enough to walk boy to and from easily. we had a flaming row on teh way home after our 1 hr visit. he refused to walk or ride any further and demanded " my dadddy now" and "lunch now" at top of his voice.
Makes not so close one (1st Steps) look easier as we could get there on one bus , local one would need either 2 busses ( expensive) or one bus and half a mile walking up hill to get home.
1st steps also have a better staff ratio - 1:8 plus 1, rather than 1:13 plus maybe one or maybe not. Not decided for sure yet. I think I may look at a 3rd option.

Astro: I'm really hoping that you can hold off on being sick until you are back home.

Hmm...Paris is only 3 hours from me. My kids happen to love it there. Where are you staying. Is it a caravan park? My boys have been invited to a sleep over in Basel for Tuesday and Wednesday night and without DH we can easily fit in our van as the back folds to be a bed. Let me know what your plans are. Do you still have my email or shall I look for yours? It would be fun to meet you and I am rather footloose and fancy-free this week from Tuesday afternoon.

Uni: Best wishes for choosing a nursery. There is so much to consider. I would agree that a challenging commute is not something that you want to take on. (Been there, done that.) It is too hard for the parents and the child.

I think that I am back in working order. Should be interesting to see what this month is like. (Perhaps I should just cave in and try to join Astro on the ante-natal threads... ) DH is working hard to convince me that it would be grand. Still not convinced but not 100% opposed to the idea either. (I am certifiably mad though!)

bless you caddy, you are mad but lovely! We will be at a campsite near versailles I think - I will email you tomorrow night, when we are more certain.x

Oh there are babies and broody people everywhere on this thread!!!! Help!!!!

CatJ -FIVE kids?? You and Caddy are both bonkers.

Have to go and cut out DP who is painted on wallpaper on the kitchen floor and needs transferring to the wall....

Caddy, Astro, CatJ- all quite quite mad.

Down her in damp devon with just the one child and no hubby ( hes working in USA for a week) I went to ride trains today. not steam, but a narrow gauge on a preservatuon line. a 5er for me and free for boy to ride the line as many times in teh day as we wished. its only a mile each way so we notched up 3 round trips, our sandwiches eaten on the platform bench and a cuppa and round of toasted tea cakes in teh station tea room.
On one trip we got " upgraded" to 1st class as we were the only people on the train - 3 staff and us 2!

Uni liking the train trip, where in USA has dh been then? nice? hot? or freezing?
Sorry to hear you had the bug, I managed to avoid it, but got stinking cold instead, which I've now shared with dh too, so he's been sick for nearly a month with one thing and another and is not a joy to live with at the moment at all......

Anyway tadhda! I'm briefly back and I'm not remotely broody (good job after all dh has been through eh ) but congrats to all of you who are preggers or thinking about it again (barking the lot of you )

Still no internet at home, and no time to get on whilst at shop, far too busy, which is good although our 1st fulltime member of staff only stuck it for a month before quitting, he was only young, guess work wasn't quite what he thought it would be, looks like we persuaded him back to college so we're muddling through until after xmas with our faithful part time members of staff working extra shifts, whilst we begin recruiting again, sigh. Its one of those jobs, where you don't really want someone whose 'into' it you know! but everyone who applies is.....

Hi Catj

Astro, can't believe the time has flown so quickly for you. Have a great time in Paris, I love that city Hope you get to catch up with Caddy and have a safe trip home, with hopefully no sickness.
DD 1 is loving school, has made loads of new friends and reading and maths (number recognition) coming on in leaps and bounds. So glad we've booked for France next summer too, as she's still doing that continued on from nursery and her teacher was saying how brilliantly they're all picking it up the other day (whilst I was asking him if he could do me an adult refresher for next year!)

LL size 8, wow well done you, I really must get more exercise done/go on a diet soon, loitering at 12/14 here we'll have to try and meet in spring somewhere nice when it gets a bit warmer and I can get some time off work!

Hi friz- nice to hear from you. good luck finding staff.
Dh is in Austin for SC08* at the mo, then over to NY for the back end of the week.
I have 3rd preschool visit lined up for wed, close to 1st steps but set in an allotment rather than on edge of school playground, do they use the garden....

• apparently its "the" super computing event of the year, hes very happy to have been sent and is hoping to blag some cool T-shirts, mugs and stickers!. and there was me thinking he was being sent to do some work... actully I think they will be working quite hard, hes getting to meet the real brains who will be working opposite him on a project rather than teh salesmen who get sent to the UK to secure the work.

Astro - I did mean to say congratulations too!! Good to hear that the Bongo has been a-rocking.

Friz - the size 8 comment was meant to be sarcastic!!!! Size 12/14 for me too and heading for a size 16 if I keep up the troughing! Made gorgeous flapjack with Kiah last night and slowly chomping my way through it - and I know just how much butter went into it .

Uni, I like the sound of the allotment preschool...I'm doing some work as an 'expert gardener' for Morrison's Let's Grow campaign and working with a couple of local schools with plots. In fact I better go and do my homework from the last visit or I'll be in trouble with the head!

preschool with allotment was nice. definatly a contender. they say they are quite busy tho, so I would need to get a form in and hope... They havn;t been using the allotment much this summer as ground had been sodden and most crops failed. I did like the way the kids could really chose to be outside most of the morning- during all the free play bits anyway. rather than just at set " out door times".
tricky choice. it would have been so much simpler if we had moved- there is only one preschool in teh village so he would have gone to that one.

That preschool sounds nice . I think that foundation stage children are meant to have outdoor access at all times - they do in Tilly's unit as long as there are only 8 at a time outside when only one member of staff etc. This is the reason that she is in a new prefab for reception rather than in main school.

Am pissed off - have had period pains since I ovulated and not due until weekend. Not good. Also just trying to sort out last year's accounts for the Tots group for Charity Commission return -they don't add up.

Grumping off to bed!!!

foundation kids are "suposed" to have access to outdoors at all times. but in practise , when preschool share the playground with infant school ( 1st steps) preschool can only use it when big kids are not, so the realality is they have free access to a tiny space on a varandah. not room to swing a cat never mind ride a bike.
local school preschool is slightly better in that preschool class have their own fenced off bit, but with a ration of 1:13 it worries me how they keep tabs on it all. a little lad had his leg broken there on tuesday- 4 yr old in a sit n ride car slammed into a 3 yr old and snapped his shin bone across the sand pit edge! OUCH. incident not handled very well by staff as injured child was caried inside to wait till mum came at end of session before being taken by mum to hospital for investigation.

back in the UK now...feels...weird/sad/wonderful.

Astro, welcome back temporarily - how you doing? What is your due date then?

Thanks LL Due date is end of July (22nd I think?) L will be 5, and E will be 3 1/2. Feels odd as I haven't been to the GP and 'confirmed'. Sickness is confirming it for me, unfortunately Good to be back though.

Astro -I thhougt I was going to be joining you but just got my period (4 days late!). Have had 2 weeks of cramps and nausea so was really thinking we'd slipped up!

I even got to the retching stage so my sympathies for you Astro - it's awful eh? At least you are pregnant so you have an excuse...I am just old and knackered it seems.

Anyway now we can get back to planning a trip this summer...thinking maybe USA parks in a camper van....expensive though. Might settle for France!

Hello, Uni that sounds awful, that poor little boy, I hope his parents take the matter further how horrible for him.

Astro, I bet your on a plane on way home now Bye! look forward to your nice Australian summer photos being uploaded once you get settled, you can make us all jealous {{{Hugs}}} re the sickness

LL, {{{{Hugs}}}} re your sickness too, winter bug eh?

Talking of which, I've had a stinking cold for 4 weeks now dd2 had a nice 3 day viral rash last week too, so hopefully she's over it now, wish I was.

Hi Friz - nice to see you!

Ugh for colds - T and K have them too - snot city!

I think the sickness was hormonal and linked to the cramps....now and then I seem to have a long and horrible cycle. Had sore boobs too which I never had - can you see why I thought I was up the duff??

Meant to be working away as have deadlines galore and am in London next week to start my Business Support accredition. Have stacks of 'prep' to do but each time I open it I just get scared and go MNing.

Hope business at the shop is good.

Hi all.
are your 2 year olds driving you nuts as well. mine is winding me up something roten. I'll be quite glad to go and do some work in teh next few weeks to have some time away from him. maybe we will like each other better for it.

ohhh ohh, we went christmas shopping today... DH has given in to my wish for a new tent, we bought one of these.
www.backcountrygear.com/catalog/tentdetail.cfm/HL1017
A Hillerberg Nallo 4 Gt
Its huge compared to our old 2/3 man vaude tent. Should be big enough for comfort for teh 3 of us but light enough to cycle tour with.

Like the new tent Uni - lucky you!

Snowing here so Kiah is out the back getting wet and dirty!

Have to make a snowman costume for Tilly later so maybe we'll be able to make a real one for some inspiration.

My sis in Scotland is preggers again. Next one due end of July so Kito will be 12 months!!!

oooohhh snow. lucky you. just frost here, car is well covered already. boiler has been frost stat ing all evening- looks like the extra insulation we put in loft has had an effect! the house is no longer leaking enough heatto keep the boiler frost free.
Boy survived his 1st morning at nursery, he goes back tomorrow for another morning, then full time for a week &half from next monday.

Well done that boy for braving nursery!

Not much snow but maybe more tomorrow? I should've watched the weather forecast. Made Tilly's snowman outfit - out of loft insulation so she's gonna boil!!

Interesting about your boiler Uni. We've had cavity wall and DP has done nearly all the loft but not sure how much difference it has made. We are having a wood fire every night so only heat the living room...run out of free wood though so may have to buy some for the first time ever.