June 07 PN - Christmas is coming, and our little puddings are becoming cheeky monkeys. Will Santa come?

[educatingRia]

best I could come up with on my enforced alcohol limitation

Please can I come to tea too Bumper, sounds yummy .

Was that Fury, or just an illusion?

Hows the packing going Fairy?

You must be super-organised doing this so close to Xmas....

It's not really going, unfortunately. I am going to my parents' today though, and leaving DCs there from tomorrow evening until Sunday afternoon so we shoudl get a fair bit done over the weekend. The problem is we might have some viewing this weekend and next week so we can't really pack anything too visibly or leave boxes around, which makes life tricky!

Thankfully I am quite organised with periferal things like sorting out the phone, broadband (most importantly!), postal redirection, etc. Also we are staying with my parents over Xmas.

You must be looking forward to finishing work?

I can imagine trying to pack around 2 kids muct be pretty difficult! I find the later I leave it, the more I get my head down and get on with it usually....a weekend left to yourself will help.

Viewers won't mind will they if the place is half empty? We viewed this place empty and I prefer that....can visualise your own things in it then.

4 working days to go (not that I'm counting you understand....blimey, I'll be on here all the time

oh DD awake....she's been asleep since 9.30am ....hope the next one is like this.....

afternoon all.
i put thomas back in with ellen last night, they are sharing the warmer room, cos toms window is broken and doesnt shut properly. and for the first time since we moved in here he has slept all night, and didnt get up will 10.30
packing pretty manic here, we have a week to go yet, but im on my own and got both DC with me.. so u can imagine how much i am actually getting done in a day
cant believe its the 11th already, not long to go till christmas

ive decided to wrap all the presents b4 i pack them, so i dont have to do them at the other end... will be doing that tonight. that and the xmas cards i STILL havent sent out.. tsk tsk.. mind you i have to find my address book think i might have packed it.

how is everyone this fine afternoon?

Poor thing perhaps he was cold all along.

Fairy, I really wouldn't worry about a few boxes around for viewers, you should've seen the state of some of the houses I have viewed! Mind you, they don't really have of the thing here of making it smell nice, fresh flowers etc.

We saw one last week in quite a state (it was empty), then were accosted by the neighbour on the way out saying that they'd been trying to sell it for a year, were mad to be asking the price they were, it was a dump etc (he was right). He then gave the estate agent more of an earful while we sneaked off!

Ours had been empty for a while.....bit of a dump but in a desirable location (only way we could afford the location) and we put in a very low offer and was accepted! Sometimes it pays off....

You looking to move as well Sputnik? I thought you had found a place a bit closer to town?

Natty I also moved at Xmas (17th) and had everything wrapped and sorted (and in storage along with crystal etc). Makes life a lot easier. I also invited both families around for Boxing Day which made me sort things out.

yes sputnik made me feel really bad, as was puzzled to why he wasnt sleeping, thought it was the upheavel of the move
bad mother

will be glad to move out of this shite cold drafty house i can tell you

My house is nice but still freezing. I put a cardigan over DS's sleeping bag yesterday and he seemed to sleep better. No wonder he had been practically sleeping on top of me these last few nights!

Norty, we have been looking for ages, called it off, on again etc, but DH can't stand the 4 hours a day commuting anymore and we would like to see more of him. We are hoping in the current climate someone will accept a very low offer. We've got a very low budget as we can't stand to sell our current house, but we've found a small flat that needs a lot of work, on the border between a crappy area and a nice one. We're on the verge of making an offer but we'll be very lucky if they accept it, so still looking.

Maybe that's why we've been having broken nights recently? Too cold? Might try a light cover over her sleeping bag tonight.

We've been making cards out at the local centre, but Jamlet ate some of the glue & glitter . Festive poops tomorrow I think!

lol jammy!
my two been sleeping since 2.30.. need to go shops and get dinner, wish they would wake up!

Blimey DD would never sleep at night if I let her sleep at that time.....I've stopped afternoon naps altogether here.

DD is sending me nuts with her eating. Has anyone got any sensible advice before I starve my bloody difficult independent strong minded daughter?

and I've just gone in the kitchen to find my fucking cat has ripped open the freezer bag with tonights pork chops in and helped himself... FFS!

Hi Norty - haven't had the eating thing with DD - YET. But she did go through a phase of chucking her broccoli on the floor, after loving it previously. I just kept giving her it every few days & just taking it away when she wouldn't eat it. Now she loves it again & asks for more. Lasted 3 or 4 weeks. Hopefully it's just a phase with your DD - asserting her independence, they don't have much control over anything else really- I'd say the less fuss you make the better. I would offer her usual meals, clear it away as soon as she starts messing around, maybe some nat yoghurt & piece of fruit if you're really worried she hasn't eaten enough. I don't think she will actually go hungry for long, is just not human nature is it?

tom went thru the not eating stage.
best advice i can give you is to take away the food not wanted, dont draw attention to it, dont give in and give her only things she likes, give her what everyone else is eating and if she doesnt like it let her go hungry. tom has about a 3 day stint roughy every 8 weeks where he doesnt like anything. it works for me, i think its a form of attention seeking and pushing the boundries.
if she gets no attention and u ignore the pushing she will give in.

hope that helps, prob seems like it will never end ellen once didnt eat for 2 weeks. kids!

Jammy, DD was eating glitter glue on sunday and we had some lovely sparkly nappies on Tuesday

Well we have survived our first day flying solo....just about. I even managed some housework and a walk to the supermarket (I only walked because the thought of taking the DCs out of the buggy and getting them in the car seemed like too much hard work). Then one of the November bunch came over with her DS and her new DD and we had a lovely chat and lunch (Covent Garden soup followed by bought cakes; no home cooking/baking alpha mummies here ). then we got to school on time to pick DS up, and managed to make tea as well. The only tricksy moment was when DD woke up screaming from her nap, and F wanted feeding at the same time so I had to feed him rugby ball style so I could cuddle DD at the same time!

We are in pyjamas now and waiting for DH to get home!

Right will catch up now.

So much of an alpha mummy I just let my flapjack burn

aw daisy well done! have been thinking of you today glad it went well, first day is always scary!

OK, about to go do my stint of work. But just wanted to give my sympathy to Norty re the eating. We're very lucky so far, not too many problems, so no real advie other than my instinct would be keep offering meals as you normally would, if they don't get eaten try not to take it personally, but don't give in either. A friend of mine doesn't believe in no main meal = no pudding as she thinks it promotes pudding as something better than the main meal, so she always gives pudding but with the quantity given in relation to the amount of main meal eaten. ie had a little dinner = a little pudding, ate full dinner = full pudding (if you are hungry enough). I think that sounds fair tbh.

Having said we don't have many problems Jamlet had a strop over her soup tonight. Would not let the soup spoon near her mouth - total freak out! But she was eating bread soaked in the soup happily, so I figured she must like the soup itself, just not the spoon. So I poured it into her doidy cup and she drank it instead And first time she's not just poured the contents of the doidy cup down her top I think because it was thicker it poured more slowly and she could see what was happening.

for Daisy and for Bumoer's flapjacks btw. OK, off to work now!

like the pudding idea jammy

Norty, I think Jammy's friend's view is a good one, and we kind of do the same. Pudding for DD is usually a yoghurt or a satsuma and she gets one whatever she's eating. TBH, I don't really pay a lot of attention to how much DD eats. I promised that I wouldn't let food be a battleground as it was for me as a child. I would just offer her stuff that you know she likes and if she doesn't eat it then give her a yoghurt or some fruit to make sure she doesn't go hungry. Try not to worry, I think it's very common. Are her teeth bothering her perhaps?

DD usually has a selection of foods at least for lunch anyway, tomatoes are usually a winner for her so I at least know she will eat something.

She refused my fresh from the oven scones today - hmph! But when DH was having one she wanted some of his

Thanks guys

She had a huge cup of milk before bed so must have needed something.

I need to learn to calm down and not get too worked up about it...I could have wrung her bloody neck though tonight - and the cat.....well suffice to say he has gone hungry!

Tallulah - still in one piece then....not 3 ....how ya doing? Surely it won't be long now? How we going to know....can you text someone?

yeah, sensible advice....thanks. It all makes sense when I read it....just got to put it into practice. She's live off kiwi fruit, satsumas and yogurts if I let her.

Oh meant to say...well done Daisy....and hope DH's day went as well as yours

Yes it's hard to stay calm when your lovingly prepared whatever gets rejected. With DD she's usually best off with a meal with seperate elements like cheese, tomatoes, beans, bread etc as opposed to something cooked with different ingredients mixed together, IYSWIM. She'll always eat something and what she doesn't gets put back in the fridge. She also very often eats very little for dinner, sometimes nothing. She does have a massive breakfast though. She is not at all undernourished!