<< lays out tiny nappies and babygros >> For TYG and SKYTV

[largeginandtonic]

Mornin!

Lups, sorry to hear about your dad. Why would he refuse any treatment?

TYG, My god, you'd think a HV would have heard so many different names in her line of work she'd have learnt to be a little more tactful. We all think it's a georgeous BOYS name so there HV!!!!

I had a lovely box set of books when I was a young teenager all classics, inc Oliver twist, A journey to the centre of the earth, Black Beauty etc... They were thick paper backs but only had text on one page, the other had a lovely black & white illustration on it. I think I read the whole set of 10 in a week. Unfortunately my love for reading never stayed, I like autobiographies now but thats about all I read. I don't have time anyway, when do you lot have time to read?
We have an issue with reading in this house atm... Harrison is finding it very hard! At school he is learning in French, they don't teach phonics the way we do and I can't help him. I have a set of Jolly Phonics books 1-7 with a dvd that my SIL stole borrowed from the school she assists at in the UK. It's so confusing for him though, poor lad. I know it'll click in the end but he's a bright lad and much older than his years mentally so he gets so frustrated and argumentative when he doesn't get it right or understand it. He then gets upset that he can't "do" it and the whole joyful reading time ends in tears. It upsets me then to know he's so upset with it as I would love him to enjoy reading in French and English at some point.

Abby hope things get better soon.

SKY, you do sound tired, get those older girls helping when you can.

Oh Lups I'm sorry to hear about your dad. I hope you get to spend lots of quality time together.

Sky, sounds like L is another J I make J walk everywhere now. No one ever offers to hold him for me. They learnt that lesson early on.

What's up with the Olympics today SOH? Not enough gingerbread eating?

And TYG I echo what SOH has just said. Daily i think of you and Sky as I have all my help and still run around after all the dc, I couldn't imagine having a newborn right now. Hats off to ye both.

MrsJB, can you get a set of Oxford Reading Tree off the internet for Harrison? I found they were better for dd who was school in French and English at home like H. She learnt to write her alphabet in caps, the french way and still now puts in lots of caps instead of small letters. Give it time it will come.

Did you guys see the women's track last night. I felt so bad for the GB team. Stupid Jamaicans messed it up for them.

Lupins. I'm sorry about your dad. It definitely isn't easy when you're given a time limit. When my dad was given 6 months to a year he and my mom had to make the aweful choice of treatment and being miserable and living a normal, but shorter life. They chose to live a more normal life, and everyone was greatful for it.

Lupins, sorry to hear about your dad.

TYG, how ridiculous of your health visitor. You think that an HV working in North London would hear enough Irish and other new to her names to think of something more sensible to say if she doesn't recognise it. Mind you, a lot of people got my sister Sian's name wrong all the time - wonder how they'd have coped if mum and stepdad had chosen Siobhan instead!

Sky, wow at L's weight gain.

TMAM, H hates the lower case letters atm. Capitals he is a dab hand at, but gets really confused with lower case, also they don't teach individual lower case, as you know they learn to join the letters from the start, I can't write the "french" way corectly for him to copy, so therefore have to return to capitals. I know he will get there but it's so frustrating to see him annoyed when he really wants to learn. I want to feed him with useful information and see him thrive. I'll have a look at the reading tree, thanks.

The books look great TMAM. I'm going to try to get some of the first stage. 6 books for £14, sound reasonable?

AM are you lurking? Would you consider getting them for me and posting them. Amazon won't deliver to France Please say if you can't, I'll sort it another way.

Are they on Amazon CAQL? If you post a link, I'll tag them onto an order I've just put through.

That's great MrsJB,the price sounds about right. dd used them in school in Somerset and soon raced through them, they are easy to follow (even if the kids in them have such annoying names!) and the idea is to get them to look at the pictures at the same time so that they work out the words phonetically and by using the picture iyswim. If I remember rightly you should get a teacher's guide with them as a pack. My suggestion would be to devise a simple method for teaching him your way and stick with it even if it is different from what he is doing at school. I reckoned by doing one thing at home totally different to what dd was doing at school helped her to compartmentalise the English learning separate from the French learning.

Abby is the expert so I may be wrong and am happy to be corrected! I'm sure she can offer some good tips.

Sadly by now dd has lost most of her French But she is keen to get back to it and she has the most delightful accent

Hello all

Wow you have had a busy few days posting wise! I havent read half the books you have all mentioned and now feel as if i have missed out on something.....

Lups, sorry to hear about your dad. I can understand why he wouldnt want the treatment. My Grandad died in December last year due to throat cancer, he opted for the treatment but as a result had to have his voice box removed and spent the last 2 or so years with no real quality of life as he couldnt communicate/eat/drink etc etc. He said before he went that if he could turn back the clock that he wouldnt have had the treatment and opted for a shorter life span but one that he could have still enjoyed. I have some many things i wish i could have asked but never did because i struggled to understand him (which i knew frustrated him). I hope that you can all get through this as a family - always here if you need an ear x

CAQL, of course that would be no trouble xx

Had a busy few days at home and havent really stopped. THe guys that work for Chris all came for dinner on Friday night, a massive Chilli Con Carne followed by some nice shop bought homemade puddings. Yesterday my sister took the kids out and we actually had time on our own that we spent playing Mario Kart on the Wii. Then sis and her bf came round for food. Today has been ok, Jack had a party to go to.

Sky, what on earth are you eating!! 14oz is amazing!! He will be the new Tank!!

Sorry, had to go out, Dad's birthday today. Had to do the family bits.

TYG thank you, probably too late to tag now and I can't decide yet whether to go with kipper or biff & chip. Or does the 6 inc stories of each? Will sort it out in the next few days.

Off to Futuroscope tomorow, Harrison is very excited. He is tall enough (just) this year to go on all the "scary" rides.

Futuroscope Theme Park anyone been?

Ooooo MrsJB, I always wanted to go to futuroscope. Have fun.

Sadly they all have Biff, Kipper and Chip. Tis impossible to escape from them.

Good morning everyone!

Nothing too exciting to report, except that I have my 12 week ultrasound tomorrow! I'm excited and ready to see this bean.

That is exciting MKG seems to have come round quite quickly.

Nothing to report here either. Had a nice quiet day at home with the children. My sis and her bf took Ella out for a few hours and Jack and i made some chocolate fairy cakes.

Dh and I have cleaned the downstairs of the house and it smells so nice

Just filled in Ella's weight chart to show that at 16mths she is 21lbs. I cant believe that J was about 25lbs at the same age! She makes us laugh everyday with the gabbling and jibber jabbering that she does. We are pretty sure that she can say: down, garden, cat, dressed, jojo (as in playhouse disney) there you go and here you go. I'm sure that J said more but then i guess he didnt have everyone speaking for him.

Both slept well last night, in fact J did 8.15pm to 9am and had to be woken! E is still doing between 11 & 13 hrs a night

Lups - about your dad, my best friend is in the same situation. Her dad has been given two years, they all seem to be coping pretty well, to be honest, and are spending lots of time together.

TYG - I think you're a bloody superwoman. Honestly, L is so demanding, I can't imagine having another one in the house - you are fab. xx

SOH - L was conceived on 30th August. And so it's nearly two years since I had sex. Although I did have sex with Warren from Hollyoaks in my dream last night - not sure Kym Marsh would approve. Things are OK with dh though, and I'm hopeful. xx

MKG - make sure you post all the news about bean!

AM - hope you had a lovely, busy weekend. L never shuts up either, we are pretty sure she's fluent in both Chinese and Italian. It's definitely not English she's speaking.

She went out with her reins on at the weekend. Another MN no-no. She loved them. I would have loved them more if she's ever gone in the direction I wanted her to.

We are starting stage one of potty training today... Ella has spent the last week or so watching us when we go to the loo. Spoke to nursery this morning about it and they have offered to start putting her on the potty at nappy time..... small steps for now just to see what sh thinks of it all

April - where did you get Ella's lovely bedding from?

I can't find ANY I like.

its from mothercare

Hi all. ck from a very busy in sunny Skeggy. To my surprise we actually had a nice time. It was packed but the kids had a ball. We stayed with friends who were in and out all weekend so they gave us a key and we basically did our own thing which suited us very well.
CQL - ORT books are good in my opinion. There are many, many critics of them and lots of people who say their kids hate them but I have never come across one. All the children I have taught in 10 years have always enjoyed the stories because they are written about a 'normal' family doing 'normal' things and most children can rel;ate to them in some way. I can't remember how old H is but if you want I could let you know what sort of stages are usually read by what age.

Abby, H is 5 nearly 6.

Pink, so pleased to see that you and M are looking positive atm. Will keep fingers crossed for you x

Just a quick one here to wish MKG all the best for today, that sure has gone quickly. Will you be able to find out if its a pink one? I'm betting it is

Good luck on the pot April, all the little ones here started at Ella's age. The girls seem to learn a lot quicker than the boys.

I am sporting a new 'do', its a Pob not quite what I was expecting but it hides the crow's feet around my eyes!

CQL, if you Google Letters and Sounds that is the name of the Govt initiative for Phonics that all schools are using now. There are many resources and schemes that have subsequently been produced to support it. Basically, it consists of 6 phases of learning. If H was at school here he would have just finished Phases 2/3 which is what they do in Recpetion. I'm not sure what his phonic knowledge is like in terms of knowing the sounds letters make but Phase would be a good plce to start if he's not got a goos grasp yet. In terms of reading books he is going to find it very difficult if he hasn't got a good grasp of phonics yet. I would recommend starting with ORT levle 1+ which are Purple on the edge. They are very simple stories and the words are easy to sound out. Also, there is loads to talk about in the pictures. It might also be worth Googling First 100 words as there is a list all schools use now to teach the children high frequency words by sight. Some of these are covered through the phonics programmes because they can be sounded out, the others have to be learned by sight and are called Tricky Words.
Sorry I've probably really gone on about nothing there but if you have any more questions just let me know. It must be so hard for him trying to learn in 2 languages at once and if it's any consolation, boys of that age regularly find phonics harder than girls.

Hello all

Had a busy weekend so feeling even more tired now!

Went to Hunstaton for the day on Sunday - nice weather and all the kids were good (apart from C who did his best playing up for DP when he wanted to put him in the car seat and change his nappy in the back of the car!). A bit too much walking though. Ended up at Wells Next To the Sea and didn't get home until 11.30 pm so didn't do much yesterday.

C still not speaking - only grunting and pointing. We get the odd sound.

We have been amazed that C has not been jealous of L as when DD2 sits on my knee he tries to pull her off or get up with her and a lot of whining is involved. Well last night he gave me a book and got hold of L's babygrow and tried to pull him off my knee - LOL. He didn't manage it but I must be aware in future.

Two years PJ? Mind you, saying that I don't think we have done it since getting pregnant with L in November last year. Glad things are sounding more positive for you.

OOh TMAM do we get to see a picture? Bet you look super super posh now

I too have had my hair done today, i am now a brunette. Might take a while to get used to as it such a difference to the blond

Well it has been a crazy morning. I did grocery shopping, visiting with my sil and helping her pack because they are moving this month,and then off to the midwife. The ultrasound was good, she was running behind today because of an emergency earlier so it was very fast, but the bean was in good position right away so it didn't cause any problems. There is just one bean in there, it has a heartbeat of about 163 (never had that before with the other two) and nuchal measurement looked good she said.

Then off to the midwife. I didn't gain any weight yet, which makes me happy because with the other two I gained 20 pounds by this point. Urine was good, bp was good. Then off for bloodwork. If I hear nothing that means good results. Then I flew home unloaded the car, put a beef stew in the slow cooker, and after I'm done on MN I'm going to make a Strawberry-rhubarb pie.

I'm tired just thinking about today.