Fab Feb 2009: baby coos, stinky poos - three months on...

[dinkystinky]

so here we go again

herb Hello. Wondered where you'd got to.
A move abroad sounds great.

Luke's been properly sucking on his thumb since yesterday. Is very cute, but it does take him a while to find his thumb. He is still rubbish with the dummy so should probably stop giving it to him, but when he actually manages to suck on it, it does calm him right down and he stops jerking around.

swampster Me too! I was sweating and everything.

Me and ds1 watched Jurassic Park this afternoon. Dp bought it on dvd for him on the weekend. I was a bit about letting him watch it, incase it was a bit scary for him, but he loved it! He was yelling "wow" and roaring at the telly. In a few bits he had quite a confussed look on his face, but overall enjoyed it.

I'm off out tonight. Well, only down to the sure start centre, they have ladies night every now and then where we just sit in the playroom and get drunk! Dp said I have to get one of the ds's to sleep before I can go (wtf? He's not my dad.......), don't really mind that, but will bet my life the little shits angels play up because I want to pop out

I am alone in the house.

DD at Rainbows, DH and DS gone to Nanny's.

What do I do now?

How about nothing?!

I ate some pasta and now I am going to fold laundry.

I am truely aghast at my whirlwind life

MS, SLEEP!
ahah, thats better, not sure what happened there!

Meant to say early herby, big decision about moving abroad but like you say, kids are young so its a good time. How long would it be for?

I am bloody livid. As you may remember, I house swopped a month or so ago with another MNer.
well we had quite a few problems in their house, eg the first night, the power went off (they were still there, just leaving for airport so knew about it and phoned an electrician) they left and we sat in the dark for a few hours with candles and no AC (Bloody hot in Malaysia) waiting for him to turn up. He turned up, arsed around and couldn't fix it so that first night in a strange house, no lights, power AC etc. Next day he comes back arses around a bit and got most of the power working except in two bedrooms so DD had to sleep in with us and DS had no lights for the whole holiday.
For 2/3 days we had no hot water so cold showers in the morning. The house was not particularly clean even though they had a maid (they hadn't cleaned bathrooms and kitchen before they left and we had more than a few cockroaches) however, we chose not to say anything as didn't want to embarrass them.
Anyway, they were in our house for over 3 weeks whereas we were in theres for 8 nights as went to Langkawi whilst there.

I was just gobsmacked to get a 'nice' email from her (3 weeks after she left my house even though I'd sent her a few mails since we were back) she said that thanks for letting them have the house, nice time etc.
BUT, she then went on to say that I was not to be offended etc etc, and went to criticise the cleanliness of my house and made excuses like me being pregnant when I was last there and my DD being ill (this was at xmas when I was last there). However, my neighbour went in and cleaned the house and hoovered in January when we had new windows put in and then DH flew back 2 weeks before they went in, essentially to clean the house as I was worried about dust from the windows etc. He spent a whole day cleaning the whole house and all the bathrooms etc so I'm fing livid, particularly about her comment about maybe I should think about this before I house swop again! stuck up fing bitch. As you can probably guess, I'm really pissed off.

rant over. Need a drink

MOS that is truly bad.... Whats her name lets give her a bit of shit..... he he

Right a question for all those with toddlers and up....

DD does wee's and poo's on the potty or the toilet every time when she has no clothes on her bottom half but when ever I put trousers on her she messes herself. We have been through 4 pairs of trousers today already... I am just letting her run around with no clothes on now and have put the heating on.... Any ideas of how we can fix this??? Cant keep up with the washing DS goes though so many clothes in one day with his reflux now this..... ]

Also what do you do when they mess themselves? Do you say thats ok or what, I dont want to tell her off for weeing herself but dont want to praise her either what do you do??

lardy, very tempting sadly/luckily, she is not a regular and if I see her on here I will shout 'troll' very loudly!

Ref DD, have you tried putting her in a skirt? My DD (aged 2.7) is just being pottied and in the last few days she has almost mastered the weeing but not the pooing (still does it in her pants) but I always put her in a skirt for 'easy access' when she has to dash.

I must admit that I did shout at her once when she weed on the floor as I was so frustrated that she'd done it as literally mintues before I'd asked if she wanted to go. Felt really bad afterwards was just annoyed that I had to clean up p*ss off the floor (mind you, apparently my hygiene standards are non-existent so maybe I should just leave it)
I now just cuddle her as she gets a bit upset and say never mind and then just take her into the bathroom and clean her up. She hated being put in the bath at first and being hosed down but now she has a giggle when I hose her bottom and her 'noony' (her word for it)

pissed off now so going to bed.

lardy - can you do a skirt? So it's wearing clothes, but she can feel what's happening better than if she was in trousers...

Good idea I will try a skirt tomorrow.... Hows your little lady PSL?

She bootiful!!!

We went out last night for Orange Wednesday at Pizza Express and John's parents babysat - John's mum did the morning feed, so we got a lie-in, and as we now take turns at doing the morning feed, and it should have been me, that's three mornings off in a row!!!

Have you heard back about another hospital appointment?

MOS it would be for 2.5- 3 years so hopefully we can be back for when DD starts school and DS would probably then be about 6 or 7. We just figured that as DS starts school in Sept 2010 I'd rather he doesn't go for a year or so, then is pulled out and then comes back again maybe to the same school to finish off - seems less disruptive for him to start his schooling abroad and then finish off here. We also need our house renovating and as we have our buy to let on the market now (and hopefully have sold it) we might soon have funds to do it so we would rather let our house in its unrenovated state than do it up and then go...so it just seems right really to go now...

Anyway, will keep you posted !!

at the house swapper - nowt so funny as folk as my mum would say....

Not sure about the potty thing - I know some people who put the knickers on and let them wet themselves as they then don't like the feeling of wet pants so you have to go through the pain (and washing). My friends DD who's in the potty training process weed on the pavement outside a shop this afternoon .

We're off to a wedding tomorrow. Kids are being picked up at 10am and we're not off til lunchtime . It's not too far away but we're staying at the venue so we can have a drink, don't have to worry about getting home tomorrow evening and then pick the kids up on Saturday - I am veeery excited. I can just about squeeze into one of my forgiving dresses. I've managed to lose 2lbs this week on my healthy eating drive but makes sod all difference to my lardy belly .

Right....off to finish watching sky plussed apprentice.

hi MOS, your houseswapper sounds like a complete nutter (and just a bit defensive?)...leaving you with an uninhabitable home but trying to find something to criticise you for. stupid cow.

i'm a sw londoner and would love to meet up when you're over. we can compare the amazing life experiences that have shaped us into being such well rounded, slightly older than most on here, women .

lardy can't offer much advice on how to help with the messing when in clothes but do think it's best not to criticise if you can. however, everyone will at some point show annoyance at having to clear up yet more piss and shit. my dd occasionally wets her bed but merrily comes in to tell me 'it doesn't mind'.

spotty sorry to hear you're having such a hard time. hope it gets better soon.

sorry PSL had to put dd to bed as dp still at work.... No we havent got appointment through yet!!!! He has been really good today though not very sick at all, and gaviscon seems to be doing the job again. I am wondering if he had a bug!! Dont know if you can have a tummy bug for 4 weeks though....

your day tomorrow sounds lovely herb, hope you have a lovely time..

Hi all. Off on holiday at ungodly hour in the morning tomorrow morning to go get the ferry - weather looks crap over in France but hey, at least the four of us will have quality time together.

Spotty - lovely to see you my love. Glad you found us again. Re Sam - try swaddle (really tight) and white noise/natural sounds on loop on your ipod - will hush him down to sleep for longer when he comes into light sleep mode. Worked a charm with DS1 who was a shite sleeper to start off with. You can get white noise/natural sounds on itunes. Re DS1 - not sure what to suggest there hon - its just a phase and will pass. I agree with trying to get family or friends or even a local childminder help out a bit to give you a tiny bit of a break so you can at least get your head together a bit and breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeathe. If you need some help with DS1's sleeping you could try a sleep clinic - we used naturally nurturing (they do phone consultations) when DS1 was 4 months old and his sleep went to pot and they were great (not CC - v sympathetic approach; lady we dealt with was a child psychologist and seriously good at figuring out what the issues were) - they do phone consultations if need be. You can google them.

Herb - wow at the abroad move. How exciting!

MoS - am in shock at the house swap lady! Hope your DS1's GCSE's go well.

Lardy - hope the potty training continues to go well. Am a big fan of the put them in trousers asap school of thought as they need to learn that they need to do certain things before weeing (e.g. pull down pants, sit on potty etc.) so we just lived through the wet pants and trousers (top tip - lined trousers hold in the wee abit better!) - DS1 seems to be just about there with the wees (occasional accident when busy doing other stuff but otherwise fine) but will only poo in his night time nappy. Sigh... Enjoy those long nights of sleep - lucky you! And your boobs will adjust when he goes through growth spurts - dont worry.

Right, off on holiday until next Friday so will try to catch up when I get back. Hope you all have a great week.

morning all,
dinky, if you get this before you go, have a fabulous holiday and enjoy all that stinky cheese!

KTB I'm very well rounded

herby you are right about the school thing, not wanting disruption for your DS. A friend of mine who was out here for a few years brought her two children out when the youngest was very young (can't remember how old) and the eldest had just done a year at school (they are from Scotland so not sure if its called reception there) anyway, he didn't particularly fit in during the two years he was here and constantly talked about his friends back at the other school. His mum made sure she kept in touch with them and went back and visited the school whenever she was back home and also made sure she kept him up to date with the school work that his peers were doing. They went back around 18 months ago and he settled back in well. I do however think you are right and it is better to go before he starts school.
Am very jealous of your child free time. Have a lovely time at the wedding and well done for your weight loss. I'm a bit miffed as I've been really good and just weighed myself and have put on nearly 1k this week?

MoS That is bad about the mner.
lardy Someone told me you shouldleave them in soiled clothes for a moment or two, then they have a chance to realise that it doesn't feel very nice. I don't think I'd do it, but an idea if desperate. I also don't think I'd tell off for soiling, but would overly praise when done in potty.

I was a little bit drunk last night. My head hurts

very LBB, of the drinking that is, not the hangover.

I'd heard that too about leaving in their dirty clothes for a little while but don't really want to do that either as I'd be worried she would get sore

still fuming by the way, maybe I need chocolate to calm me down. Don't want to keep boring you all with this but I'm still gobsmacked about it. There house was basically falling down, nothing worked, full of bugs. I was last in our house in December and rushed round like a lunatic, drove 50 miles to buy a cot essentially for them to use as I wouldn't have bothered for H til next month, if at all. Paid a man to come in and put it together, bought new bedding for cot and master bedroom and all new towels and we had crappy old stuff at their house.
If only I was brave enough to start a thread on AIBU?
right, thats got it off my chest

MoS why don't you send her an email saying something like "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. We had made a big effort to get the house ready for you but as we were obviously not around before you arrived to check everything it is interesting to hear that you thought there were areas which could have been better. I am glad you felt able to contact me about it as I had been wondering, since we got back, whether or not it was the done thing to provide feedback as we did experience a few problems with your property you might like to know about if you are planning to do another houseswap..." Then you can, very sweetly, criticise her house & standards too!

HoM, you are the very soul of tact

HOM, sadly I'm not as tactful as you and sent a slightly differently worded email.
I expressed my surprise at her comments about how clean it was, particularly as DH had spent a day cleaning (we'd had new windows fitted in January and had warned them there may be some dust which they were fine about!)
I when went on to point out that they had enjoyed the luxury of power and hot water every morning and presumably no bugs, etc etc. I'd even gone out and bought them some boxes of little cereals (you know the ones I mean, the multipacks that kids like) organic baby food/fruit for their DD, biscuits, drinks and a few bottles of wine.
We got to their house just as they were leaving and her DH offered to SELL us a bottle of alcohol or a can of beer! After a particularly stressful driving experience DH did have one of their cans of beer and replaced it with 6! arseholes!

Just so you know, anyone attending the proposed summer meet up, I'll be the dirty one

Swampster I'll tell DH you said that. I expect he'll stop laughing some time next week!

dd is 4 and will happily walk around in wet clothes all day long unless i notice but other friends have had great success with the 'leave them in the wet clothes' philosophy, as with everything it depends on the child.

ds1 is in pull-ups today as i'm worn out from the accidents, he's regressed to wetting more than he uses the toilet and we've still had no luck with poo

dp's driving to letterkenny as we speak for a job interview... fingers crossed it goes well.

lardy, reflux eases up alot at around this age anyway, most will still be sick a lot til they're weaned or beyond but it does get less as the sphincter muscl at the top of the tummy starts to work better

mos, they sound like fucking nutjobs, i hope they haven't left your house in a right state on you. honestly, don't give it a second thought as she's clearly deranged and not worth the stress..... do name and shame though.... i think you should mention something on the houseswap threads so people are warned not to swap with her in case they suffer the same fate!

woohoo, aaron's passport just came....now the million dollar question is where the fuck is mine????? stooopid dutch embassy are taking their sweet damn time with it

ds1 has given his favourite teddy bear to aaron as hes decided 'baa baa bear makes baby aaron smile' little cutie

PT - so cute! I'm sort of looking forward to having another baby so M can be like that (I hope she will be anyway!)

dinky - hope you have a lovely holiday

MOS - Is there a place for feedback in the houseswap section here? Not to be mean, but so you can warn others...

PT, don't give up on the potty training, DS will get there. I do know how you feel though as DD had quite a few accidents a few days ago and it was really p*ing me off so I did put her in pull ups for the afternoon. Back in knickers today though (her, not me) and going well so far.....

Good luck with DH's job interview. Being nosy, what does he do?

Hope your passport turns up. I know its really worrying, takes for ever here to get passports sorted and visas and I'm always worried they will go missing.

very cute ref teddy

I've started to worry a little about the state of our house as we had it perfect when we left (apart from the dirt of course) We'd just had the loft conversion completed and had new carpet up the stairs, landing, new bedroom and study and had it all painted etc. Hope they haven't trashed it Tempted to name and shame but I won't, yet. Depends what her reply to my 'shitogram' email will be.

shitogram