July 2006 - They're not really babies any more. Nearly 2!

[AnnieAreYouOkAreYouOkAnnie]

New thread anyone?

Flick - wow! That is a surprise - will it be permanent?

HONG KONG!! Fantastic! Can I come Flick? We spent a few days there on our honeymoon and I absolutely loved it, I remember saying it was somewhere I could live.

Spin, agree about the older siblings helping with speech. I also think Peppa Pig has a lot to do with it...
Enjoy the beach!

Ceebee, your bump is fab! 16 weeks already!! So quick. How many weeks are you Mae Rhinestone??

HC would you not find if you buy stuff now, that the children would have changed what they want by Christmas? Eg Six months ago, all Joey wanted to play was Roary the Racing Car, now he doesn't even want to watch him anymore. It's all dinosaurs... And crocodiles.
Great that you can be so organised though.

Bloss, poor Tobes and his teeth. I think Mimi's canines are coming through too. Saying that, she had a reasonably good night's sleep last night, only woke around 10 to watch telly!! Then she went off again til around 4.30, so we actually had some space in the bed til then. She is definitly getting better, but still nowhere near sleeping through.

Are we supposed to be having 2 year check ups? Will I get a letter, or do I have to chase it up? Haven't been to the clinic in about a year or more. And that was the first time...

Starting to worry about getting Joey into school next...

Toilet training is still hit and miss. Quite literally. We've had a few successes, but they've mostly been flukes! Mimi is still getting more stickers!!

She's being absolutely adorable with all her cuddles and kisses. And also extremely frustrating with all her wriggling and fidgetyness!!

Party - we'll probably just have another barbeque and just invite a couple of our friends, some with kids. Didn't do party bags for Joey's, so won't for Mimi's.

Best go girls, the babes are shoo-ing bumble bees in the garden

x x x

you can all come! It'll probably be for aroudn 4 years, so jacob will be ready for prep school age when we come back. we are only just starting o nthe proces so getting some advice o na couple of my friends out there on where to live, schools etc - also it's very polluted from shanghai so if it's too bad we will just not go - jacob has "hypersensitve airways..." so don't want to put him in a situation that WILL definitely aggravate that badly.

other good news is that the carpenter is finishing at lunchtime! so I'll have the afternoon with no workmen here YAY!!!!!

Annie - if good speech is due to Peppa Pig, then Josh should be the best talker on this thread - he watches enough of it! 4 episodes every morning when he gets up!!!

Annie-should have clarified. Don't buy the girls' things early for Christmas, only rest of the family and only if it is appropriate. I got a letter last week with an appointment for the checkup.

Sophie had the checkup and refused to be weighed or measured so will never know if she is undertall. HV very pleased with her. As for me, when I got back in the car found I had an obvious bogey in my nose. Utmost embarrassment at the thought of the HV seeing it.

Hope all OK.

HC
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HC that makes sense. Plus it saves that last minute dash down Oxford St on Christmas eve at 7pm!!!

Will wait patiently for my letter then. I wonder where the clinic is. I'm sure it's moved since last year.
LOL at the Bogey HC!! Sounds just like something that would happen to me!!

Spin, do you have a link for the doll's house? I was thinking along those lines, but I haven't really found one I like.
LOoking forward to that testosterone surge!! He's already ignoring me a lot, but he gets that from DH!! Chili sounds a very accomplished young man!

CB, just wait, one day Josh will amaze you will a big flood of sentences!!

I just locked us all out of the house. Silly mammy. The postman had a parcel, so I called everyone to come and answer the door, but of course the back door was open too, so while we were out there the door slammed. Silly mammy. My first thought was to pick the lock with a random clothes peg but that didn't really work, so the only other thing I could think of was to stop the next passing person and get them to call the police (This happened to DH before, with Joey inside). Anyway, a nice ole Irish workman was over the road 'working' and he came along and suggested climbing in the back window, so then I thought of the open door!! Rang at the neightbours next door and the girl agreed to climb over the fence and come through to let us in. She took aaaaages though!! I kept peeping in the letter box!! She was probably trying to get back the six vicious dogs in her garden...
Anyway, all was well. The lovely workman waited with us til we were safely inside, and had actually been to my home town only last week.

Well, best turn that telly off and play. Sigh...

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Annie - I bet Joey and Mimi loved the adventure of being locked outside!!

Josh does a very good impression of George pig going 'yuck' and also his dinosaur impression - so he has picked up some things, jut not words

HC - lol at the bogey - I bet the HV didn't even notice!!

I have no idea whether we get a 2-year check up - I think we do but I have not heard anything and assume the HV's will write.

Spin - those dolls houses look lovely

x

Hiya,

Came back off hols last saturday. The holiday was nice and the weather warm. I had my tummy bug up until wednesday though and just felt sick constantly, luckily as a result of taking so many imodium to make it on the plane didnt have the trots all that time but the nausea as terible. I couldnt eat for most of the hol. Have my WW meting tonight so well see if I actually gained any weight.
It was fab spending time with DC. DS has just become adorable and a cheeky little monkey,He has a wiken sense of humour and does things to make us laugh, he enjoyed walking round the place and didnt use his buggy much. He liked waving at every bus,plane or boat we saw.
DD on the other hand had turned into the most cheeky 4 yr old going, she is so stroppy and answers back. Wouldnt do as she was told and if we told her off she would give us some reply back, I got ed up of listening to me shout at her. She didnt want to make friends with anyone and then moaned that she was bored no matter what we did.

She said to mil yest when she asked why she was doing naught things that ' Its just so difficult trying to be good all the time'

Will try and post some pics soon.

Cant believe what some of your lo's are saying. We are still stuck on 1 words and occasionally we get a 2 word prase such as 'all gone' Only close family can understand what he is saying.

Hes funny! because im on the laptop he has just gone into the playroom got dd's dora laptop and is now sat by the side of me typing.

Best go and get DD from nursery before shes abandoned at the gate and then were off to friends for tea.

Welcome back kbaby, glad you had a good time with DS despite all the goings-on with your digestive system!! Your DD sounds like she is growing up fast, we all have that to look forward to.

CB J+M were quite pleased with their adventure, specially when they got to say Silly Mammy over and over!! The best part was the three of us peering in the letter-box. You will be surprised (pleasantly I think) at what they pick up from Peppa, the other day we all went out in the car, and Mimi says; Can we have the Bing Bong song please mammy?!!

Spin, those houses are beautiful. I've had a look on eBay, the one you are getting is there, it is fab - would you be awfully miffed if I pinched your idea??
I really think Mimi needs some more girly/fairyish stuff (even though I'm not a fan myself! Though I did have about a million barbies) to stop being so Joey-like, with crocs and dinosaurs!! She does that little chattering to each other thing too with the Little People/Animals.

Anyway she is now trying to squash a fly with two little trains on the window...
I'm trying to get her to say 'Drosophila' to impress DH, she says 'Awfilla'. Close enough!!

x x

talking of getting things early- i've got a wooden airplane which jacob WILL like some elmer stuff which can be for either of them and a wooden xylophone which sam can play with.

Jacob is pretty generic when it comes to toys - sporty stuff or thomas and you're on a winner, or books - he's a big book fan! and the good thing with 2 boys is if he doesn't like it sam will at some stage!

well pretty much all packed but can't find the maps we had for the last trip so i may have to take a trip out to get some today....

it's so nice having a day without builders here! got jacob's party invites through yesterday - we did them at friendsinvited.com which was great - pirate treasure island ones that you can personalise!

xxx

Sounds like a good night Spin! I was in bed by 9.40pm last night, as suffered greatly with a hangover all day yesterday, drank far too much white wine on my meal out with the girls on Thursday night. Good fun though, quite a small crowd of us rather than the usual 10, and managed to all have the same conversation instead of 3 going on round the table at once! Covered alot of ground! (god I make it sound like a board meeting don't I? I can assure the topics were not board room topics...)

Out for dinner again tonight, I think I may drive though

Spending today with my sisters as DH is working. He gave me a lovely lay in this morning which was heavenly.

Need to stop eating - have gone up to 9.3 from 8.12 can't stop bloody eating!

H being a trial this morning, but have despatched him into the playroom to build blocks while T watches Spmething Special..

this is an excellent weather check site guys by the way...

Have great days.

Bloss

xx

oh and have a great holiday Flick. Hoep it gives you and DH time to re-connect a bit. And Hong Kong how exciting! I have been there a couple of times and really like it, wouldn't want to drive there though particularly, they are all insane! Remember a fabulus floating sea food restaurant.....

Have a great holiday-you've probably already gone.

Ladies, my Blossom Hill wine has been updated (very pretty flower on the bottle) but now has a screw lid. Is this acceptable or should I find an alternative wine to drink?

Raining here and thundering/lightening-lovely!

Love to all

HC
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Evening ladies.

Just got the babes to bed, all by myself while DH is out on the last, so I'm treating myself to a glass of white and some chilli wedges!
HC Screw tops have become acceptable now. They used to be the sign of a cheap crap bottle, but a lot of the well known good wines are using them now. The one I'm drinking has one! Much easier access I feel!!

Flick, hope you are enjoying your holiday.

Bloss, don't drive missus!
Hope you have a good evening too.

Spin, sounds like a perfect evening!! Hose squirting is the order of the day here too!!

Suppose I'll have to make a bit of an effort tomorrow, seeing as it's Father's day. Got the little uns to wrap some pressies (now don't laugh, but it was a collection of kitchen utensils - to make his life a bit easier!! an apple corer, a honey drip thing and a proper peeler!! He's gonna love me (NOT!) . And a big chocolate beer thing.

Nite all!

x

That should have read, 'out on the lash'.
I hope he's not out on the last. That wouldn't be good...

x

Hi Girls - just a quickie from packing hell!

Annie - am absolutely with you on easy access screw tops, if there's a choice between a cork and a screw top bottle in the fridge, I find myself reaching for the screw top now out of sheer laziness

Busy days here, DH being a packing whizz, me ebaying like crazy, getting rid of stuff we can't fit into the new house (plus flogging piles of crap like DH's rugby programme collection) .

Wonder what Emma will make of the move - she's so aware of everything now, she even noticed the pictures were missing from the walls. She's vacillating between complete delightfulness and demented whinginess at the moment. Not sure about the number of words thing - she's putting two words together a lot (eg 'mummy splash' (mummy's in the bath)), but she babbles a lot to herself so they could be very complex sentences that we're just too stupid to understand!

Quite picky about food, and much prefers being fed to feeding herself, she'll usually do about two spoonfuls before wielding the spoon at you and going 'uuuuuh'. If you say 'Emma do it' she plays dirty - airily pushing the plate away and saying 'all gone' so you're forced to either take the full plate away or 'help' her to eat it by feeding her Fave toys are her sets of farm animals, they go on adventures all round the house now. One thing I've really noticed is how she really plays with her teddies and dolls, putting nappies and clothes on them, putting them to bed etc. She puts pretend eyedrops in their eyes and cuts their 'toenails', they even get a cuddle afterwards and she tells them the procedure is 'all gone' now, aaaaw.

Fave TV this week is Pingu (pronounced 'Minook', wtf).

Must get off to bed (suffering hangover from night out with girls last night too!) - love to all, promise I'll catch up soon! xxx

Annie-are you a tad phished?

Pixel-get some sleep and you will feel much more refreshed and can prepare for your move. Hope all is going fine.

Night ladies

HC
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HC! What do you think of me! I'm being very responsible tonight, and have resisted opening another bottle!! I think the new bottle is a cork, so it's harder to open

Pixel, LOL at Minook!!!!
Best of luck with the move!!

Am now looking at Little People Castle for Mimi's birthday... I think I've become obsessed with the Little People. I'm Joey's only missing five animals from the ABC zoo.

Ok I'll go now

Hi all

Have given up trying to sleep so here I am, dunno what was up with Zack last night. He was calling out in his sleep all night eventually put him in our bed for a couple of hours, he is such a FIDGET! He had to sleep as close to you as poss, cute yes but bloody uncomfortable!
He hasn't woken in the night for yonks so has been a shock to the system, I remember this spacey feeling well!

Glad to hear you're all doing well, all our little lovelies are certainly their own people now.
Zack's speech is developing well and he is beginning to put words together but have to be honest the constant chatter can drive me mad at times I have to repeat everything he says to confirm my understanding so a conversation can last forever and he gets very cross with me if I'm not understanding him and saying the wrong things.

Have been doing a bit of potty training but taking it slowly, mainly because I can't stand staying at home all day and I'm not brave enough to take the potty out anywhere with me. Amazingly he is better at poos than wees, our Zack always likes to be different

He is talking about his birthday "birday" all the time, and wants balloons, cake, sausages and then names every one in the family because they all have to come. And of course presents but if you ask him what presents he would like he replies "predents". He sings his version of Happy Birthday to himself all the time. It's DP's birthday today too apparently not fathers day, so I'm sure we will have to sing to him in a bit too
Zack will have 2-3 parties because we have a family conflict/war that has spanned 25 years on both sides Don't think Zack will mind that though.
Present ideas include, a doctors kit, microwave and toaster for his kitchen, desk and chair, art and craft bits and an aeroplane with people.

The wedding is 7 weeks away now, everyone is trying to be jolly about it but I think they're all dreading it for the reasons mentioned above

Am starting to look at pre-schools as some of them around here start them at 2 yrs 6 months, not sure if we will send him then or wait to 3yrs but we are putting his name down anyway.

Hope you and DH are doing ok Pixel, moving is so stressful. Shame you're missing the festival there this weekend!

Ceebee- your pg seems to be whizzing by!

Spin- you always find the best toys, would love to get Zack a dolls house but think that would be a step too far for DP. He makes a face when i borrow cot and the like from the toy library

Oops best be off Z stirring, as its fathers day I'm on duty this morning.
Hi to HC, Bloss, Flick, kbaby and all, have a lovely fathers day- hope they don't milk it too much

hi all. Of course I didn't drive Annie! IT came close though but friend ended up driving she doesn't really drink anyway. Very nice curry out, gorge restaurant. Hilarious trying to teach my parents how to use Sky remote AGAIN! And Sky plus well forget it....{grin]

oops T is crying agian, WTF?

Cheers ladies!

HC
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