The one where they put their best feet forward

[Soph73]

There you go Ellie

You take it easy & get loads of rest. Thinking of you.

Got to go, DS1 is pestering me! See you all tomorrow.

soph - Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA) ? this hearing test is typically done for infants over six months of age. This test takes advantage of a baby's natural head turn to look for the source of sounds. It involves teaching your baby to turn to sounds by reinforcing the head turn with toys that light up. Sounds are presented through little plugs that fit in the ear canal, through headphones and/or speakers. Visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) is an important behavioural test of hearing in young children. The use of insert earphones during VRA provides a reliable method of obtaining ear- and frequency-specific data.

I googled that obviously, that is not how I speak I promise!!!!

scorpio - you poor thing. Thinking of you. Take lots of time to yourself and make sure you take any help you can. Lots love

Am still at work and tired. This sucks.

At home eventually, and dh cooked us fish & chips, which was lovely. Where are everyone, btw?

we were all waiting for you to turn up, Sal , didn't want to start without you. Long night for you. My DP cooked us egg fried rice and chicken with cashews! yum.

Hehe. I am so tired, but worse than that, breaks my heart that R was asleep before I got home. I keep going into his room looking at his peaceful little face, and then am so sad. This isn't right, is it? At least dh was working from home both yesterday and today, so picked him up from nursery early and apparently they had a lot of laughs. But I'm his mom. Not working late for the rest of the week - will go in early and skip lunch, but this isn't right. Deadline is for Friday - I'm going to finish early next week - want to pick him up at nursery at 6 at the latest.

Have now decided though - as soon as the other girl back from maternity leave, I'm stopping working altogether. Will try and save up for next couple of months, but I can't do this and actually have a relationship with him.

Sorry for the moan, just had to get that out of my system.

Sorry, got trapped into watching something with DP
GOSH, that's a big decision, Sal - giving up work. It's tough though isn't it, I was thrilled today when I managed to get to CM for 5:40 (left work 4:30 on the dot), DS was just finishing up tea and I had him home in time to have a little play before bath and bed. So nice.

Maybe delay your decision until you've had a couple weeks without this deadline though? Maybe you can come to a better arrangement to always leave by a time that will allow you have time with him?

Got to go to sleep...

Sal, just a thought. My SIL has re-arranged her working hours so that she gets just one short break at lunchtime and can then leave at 4.00 and get a bit of quality time with her dc's. Might that work?
The other thing I used to do was let ds1 stay up quite late in the evening and let him compensate with a 3 hour nap in nursery during the day.
But if you really want to give up work, go for it! and

Scorpio - So sorry I feared the worst when I saw your thingy on FB ... sorry my fears proved right.
Hope you are OK; take very good care of yourself x

paranoid - and there was me thinking how incredibly clued up and eloquent you were. I think my friend is coming with me on Thurs and she speaks fluent Spanish so I shall get her to ask why they are doing this test & if they have the facilities to do the VRA. Thank you for the info.
Sal - is there no way you can rearrange your working hours? What do you do for a living? Could you do anything else? Sorry not interrogating you, honestly! It's a horrible horrible thing to have to work when your baby is this age. At least I get to leave work at a sensible time though and we do get exactly the same hols as the boys so that's even better. Move out here & we can job share then you'd have sunshine and sensible hours

Hello, DS has been very 'mixed' today, lovely times and very touchy times as well. I think maybe teeth? Or I'm very boring. He has discovered that the things at the edge of the room (bookshelves) are full of smaller things that can be pulled out (cds, dvds, books). If only mummy would just leave him to do it. Maybe I should just let him have his way with the cds/dvds - I guess he can't do much harm to them nor they to him.
In fact, I really wish we could have gone out today but we sold our car on eBay (fools! well, we described it and all it's problems accurately, so I guess the people who bought it know what they're getting into), and the person is coming to pick it up today. Supposed to be here in about half an hour. Feel slightly nervous about stranger coming into house..will log back on here to assure you I'm alright, ok?

LadyBee - have they been to pick up the car? The only problem you may have with LO with cd's and dvd's is if he gets the boxes open. Then you'll just find nothing will play as they're either scratched to billy-ho or gunged up with something unmentionable! And go careful that he doesn't scratch himself on them. God aren't I a ray of sunshine this afternoon

damn it, they texted to say couldn't come until tonight, AFTER I waited in all afternoon. grrrrr. Oh well, at least DP will be here to deal with it this evening.

DS trying to type a post too, better go before he destroys laptop...

Hi guys. Just checking in before I leave for the night. Urgh urgh urgh. Thanks for the nice words - will catch up properly tonight. Home, here I come! Not used to this anymore...

arrggggggggghhhhhhhh. So they said they'd come at 8pm. Fine. I wait and wait and at 8.30 text them to see whether they are coming and if they need help finding us. At 8:55pm I get a call, sorry not coming, cousin didn't pick up blah blah blah. They're coming tomorrow.

Scorpio, if you're keeping an eye out, I hope you're not still suffering too much pain.

Oh how annoying - I HATE when people do this! Surely they knew they're not coming a lot earlier. Urgh.

We're now definitely going to Peru (might skip Bolivia now, as the places we are going to visit in Peru (near Machu Picchu) is at lower altitude, so might be better for a short holiday). I still have to finalise leave details with my boss, but it will be so brilliant! Can't wait!

Re work. Sensible advice from you all, as always. I guess I should give it a couple of weeks and see, it's just that this week is so horrendous. However, saying that, I'm leaving on time tomorrow (have to take R to doc for checkup), and will leave at 5 on Friday (as that is deadline - if not finished then I'm royally screwed, but coming home nonetheless). My boss did say he doesn't mind normally, and that I can leave earlier (usually) if I want, it's really just bad luck and a couple of things that happened at once these last two weeks, ending up with one big backlog this week.

And I'm taking a couple of hours off next week to take R to stuff, so then it'll be ok again.

I'm a finance manager btw, Soph, nothing exciting. See, if I was a secret agent or something suitably dangerous/exciting, it might have been more fun working late - a half-deserted (or completely!) office and a calculator as your only company is enough to drive me to Rice Crispy treats. Have done, will again. Oh well. My current contract is to end Sep, and I'm not sure what I'll do then. Will see.

Sheez, just saw the time. Good night everybody.

Morning all.

Sal - yep, definately think secret agent is the right career move for you You do get those weeks where it seems like everything is transpiring to get you. At least you know it'll be different next week. Just keep smiling
LadyBee - people can be so inconsiderate can't they? I hate it when things like that happen

Sam is still poorly, poor little tike. It's horrid having to drop him at nursery knowing he's not feeling 100% Now his eyes are all gunky. If he's no better by the weekend I'm going to take him to the docs. I know there's probably nothing she'll be able to do for him but it's just going on for so long.

However, on a positive note, I decided yesterday that it is going to be a good year this year. I've made my mind up so that's final

Oh, and it's CHIP DAY so that's a good start

Hi Soph,
Sorry to hear Sam not well. My LO has just started eating again after 2 1/2 weeks of feeling poorly. Ended up taking her to the doc's 4 times ! Firstly conjunctivitus, secondly diarrohea, thirdly bad cough and fourthly, not eating, coughing, snotty, etc., etc. Each one was all related to a horrible cold, but I was glad I went each time, just for reassurance and advice. It meant she was at nursery 3 times feeling poorly which I felt dreadful about, but hoping she will really enjoy herself this week, now she's feeling better. I hope Sam is better soon - it's horrible.
Glad it's going to be a good year - having a horrible February so far!

bumpkin - pleased your lo is feeling better. Sounds like Sam has exactly the same as your DD had. He's just all snot, watery eyes, cough, etc. The good thing is that he's still eating & he only coughs once or twice during the night. His snoring has reached an incredible noise level now though Did you give your LO anything or did you just let it run its course?

Sorry to hear you're having a bad February, nothing too serious I hope?

Soph - I was given stuff from doc for conjunctivitus (but all of nursery had it and only some doctors had given out medicine for it), but most of the time she was just on calpol. I took her to the doc when she sounded like she had a chesty cough but the doc said still to stick to calpol. She then started coughing at night, which woke her but next doc visit said to just stick with calpol. Also used karvol drops on hankie which seemed to help keep her nose a bit clearer. It was horrible but her appetite has definitely returned!!! And her cheekiness!

We had chip day yesterday, I made them and they were SO good. Am officially starting a diet today though, sadly, as back at work in 8 weeks and can't get into any of my work clothes

And talking of - I wasn't on here yesterday cos DH forgot to pay the phone bill and we got cut off so internet didn't work. Oops. Very chavvy. Though it seems to happen relatively often now DH has responsibility for paying the bills, cos he just leaves them on the side and 'forgets' them.

Molly is like that too at moment- there's nothing really they can take for chesty coughs is there?

bumpkin - that's alright then as I have calpol at home and that's what I've been giving him and I've been putting Olbas Oil for children on a cloth in his room but I don't know whether it's doing any good. Makes the room smell nice though! We're just wiping his eyes with cooled camomile tea. I'd never heard of that as a remedy until I came here but it really does work. I love cheeky children

Ellie - you should know by now that if you want something doing properly/on time you have to do it yourself. My DH is adorable but sometimes I do wonder!! I really should go on a diet too but just can't be bothered. Fortunately I can still squeeze into my work clothes, but will have to do something if I get any bigger

Sorry I am not around at the moment. I am still alive etc! So no worries about little one being in hospital again or something. (Cos you girls are always nice enough to think about who's not here and are generally fab and lovely)
Minieggs and snow for you all. Hope Valentines is a good day

xxxThePFJxxx