The all new and exciting May TODDLERS thread...

[GeorginaA]

... it's May 1st folks...

I can agree with that - ds2 ATTACKED my chilli con carne this evening (due to timings we'd fed him his own meal before dh came home and then ds1, me and dh ate an hour later). Reckon half my fork fulls went into his open mouth rather than mine!!!

Twiglett, you have won me over with the singing dolphins - DS loves thumping the water so they would be great! He isn't keen on the airy ball poppy thing that was recommended but he does like his drum (again it involves thumping something!)

Am thoroughly peeved with line manager who told me (and my colleague) off for being 10 mins late back from lunch. Never mind that all my other colleagues have let her down big time this week, I suppose we were the proverbial last straw but I am still peeved. When I was pregnant I had just one day off for a cold, I have hauled my head cold and extreme back pain into work all this week so a lecture about a rogue 10 mins nearly had me telling her where to shove her job - I only went back into her team because I thought she could do with someone who didn't need training . . . grr!

DS has a great game, he does his impression of Pob and I have to tap his top lip so he goes prp prp prp instead of ppprrrrppp - then we get squeals of giggles because it is mighty funny! However, I still struggle to convince complete strangers that he can be animated - he just tends to freeze and stare at them. All this convincing is wearing me out!

Oh, and to add insult to injury . . .

we have no hot water and the boiler was struggling. So I called a plumber, a pump has gone (£50), the water tank needs replacing (£250) and having it fitted (£100). Priceless! Fanbloodytastic.

And guess which one of us has the funds available to pay for HIS ruddy plumbing and improving HIS flipping house in general. My final invoice is going to be very steep! The git. I keep thinking he will find it a struggle once I've gone but I would've replaced everything by then!

(am I allowed an angry day today please? thank you.)

Final post promise. Have just checked Hotmail and have been told that most landlords in this dumpty town won't accept tenants claiming HB. I am going to end up living with my parents at this rate .

Flipping Council won't even write to me a letter covering what we discussed over a month ago - despite my e-mails! Right, I have had enough now.

This really is my final post. Thanks for letting me vent spleen, I do appreciate it xxx

Dammit, Libb, you will find a place to stay... 'most' landlords not 'all' landlords... small comfort but... sending you proverbial Mumsnet power.

I wanted to log on last night and say Happy Birthdays to Prufrock and Twiglett's one year olds! But my sister phoned and those of you with sisters will know that this counts out much of the evening. Also, DD is currently waking at 5.15-5.30 so I am in bed by 10.

Happy Birthdays anyway you toddlers, you.

DD is making me laugh with her 'wow' which she has got from me. She looks down my top and says 'wow' reverently. hey, it's been a while since anyone did that...

We had another baby and her mum to lunch yesterday, an old friend. One of those occasions where you end up feeling a bit inadequate. It's the old eating thing again... DD eats veg baked into various disguises but this baby eats proper cucumber fingers and stuff. Oh dear, why is this a problem? It must be a first baby thing. Perhaps I am secretly very competitive.

Took DD to knock down sandcastles on the beach. SHe will be getting sand toys for her birthday; we have the biggest sandpit in town right on our doorstep!

Libb - really on your behalf. That man needs a good slap.

spots: I know exactly how you feel. I'm so much more relaxed with ds2 but I still find myself comparing ds1, so maybe it is a first child thing. I worry that he's not drawing as much as his peers, or isn't as tall etc... completely missing out on what he is doing that his peers aren't! Need to give myself a kick up the backside sometimes

With ds2 I'm more confident that he will get there in his own time, having seen it once already, iyswim.

Got tellytubbies on at the moment - meant to put discovery channel on for me, but cbeebies flashed up and ds2 is GLUED to the telly . Guess I have to go through the tellytubby stage again now...

oh libb, you will get sorted in the end. you poor thing. xx

right, this salt/food thing. so what IS the maximum allowance per day for a one year old? i havent given dd anything with salt in, except the odd bit of corned beef . today i made a shepherd's pie with a lazy schwarz mix which i wouldnt give her. looked at the packet and it has 5.2g of salt per 100g!!!!!!!!! so thats a real nooooonooooooo then.

hmmm. not that she'd eat all of that though. think i should start to make my own mixes. just that i'm crap at it. how do you do a chilli then? without a packet?!!!!!! arrgh. sorry. helsy? prufrock? all you good cooks? and curries!!

Yep egypt - I did a slow cooked chilli without a packet. Need to sort out lunch now but will bung a good shepherds pie recipe and a good chilli recipe up a bit later.

2g of salt per day for children under the age of three according to the Food Standards Agency

Remember also egpyt that that's 5.2g per 100g of dried product ... it makes much more than 100g of shepherds pie Still high though if you consider that your lo will probably eat a good sixth of that pie though... (or at least mine would eat about a quarter but then he's a piggie)

Sorry meant to carry on the calculation.

The packet is a 50g packet? So that's 2.6g of salt in the entire packet. So assuming a sixth of the whole shepherds pie eaten (and assuming no extra salt added in the potatoes etc) that's 0.4g of salt your baby would have eaten in that portion. So not as shocking as first assumed... but I do try and severely limit processed stuff anyway, just because it's a pig working out the calculation all the time and those schwartz packets are a rip off considering the cost of the actual ingredients and the ease of making it yourself!

My favourite cottage pie (if you want shepherds pie, just buy some fresh shepherds instead ) if I'm feeling faffy. If I'm not feeling faffy then I just brown mince and onion, stick some gravy in then put mash on the top then cook in the oven for 30 mins.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
250g carrots, sliced
400g beef mince (best quality you can afford)
300ml fresh beef stock
800g floury potatoes (I prefer King Edwards for a really good mash)
butter and milk to help mash the tatties

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F Gas Mark 5)
2. Heat the oil and fry the onion and carrots for 6 minutes.
3. Add the mince and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Stir in the stock, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Meanwhile, cook the potatoes until tender (takes around 15 mins) and mash well using the butter and milk as per your usual mashing preference.
6. Transfer the beef mixture to an oven dish and cover with the mashed potato. Use a fork to make wavy lines on the top of the mash.
7. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Serves: 3-4. Best dished with some lightly steamed savoy cabbage (4-5 mins in steamer).

Although that looks more faffy that way, it does make the meat and carrots very tender for little mouths! Oh sometimes I chuck some frozen peas in just before adding the mash and popping in the oven.

Sorry, I'll stop spamming our thread in a minute. Chilli Con Carne recipe:

(slow cooked)

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 green pepper de-seeded and chopped
500g minced beef
400g can of chopped tomatoes
1.5 tsp chilli powder
1.5 tbsp flour
1.5 tsp brown sugar
4 tbsp tomato puree
salt & freshly ground black pepper
425g can red kidney beans, drained

Fry onions, garlic and pepper in a pan until soft. Add minced beef and fry until lightly browned. Blend together chilli powder, flour, brown sugar and tomato puree to make a chilli paste. Stir in tomatoes, resulting paste and seasoning into the pan. Transfer all ingredients to the crock pot and place pot in slow cooker base. Place lid on slow cooker. Cook for approx 3-7 hours on MEDIUM. One hour before serving add the kidney beans. Serve with boiled rice or baked potatoes.

oh you are a star. but its the fresh beef stock i'm confused with. does that mean cooking a joint of beef?! to get the stock?! eeeeek, i'm not much of a delia am i?

chilli sounds great. will do that next week, easy peasy x

No I get the fresh stocks (300ml) from the chiller cabinet. Extortionately expensive, but generally slightly less salty (0.3g of sodium per 100ml instead of 0.4g in a Knorr cube) and much more flavour than a cube. Only if I'm feeling flush though, otherwise I'll use a cube!

I'm not a delia either, but I'm finding more and more recipes that I'd have resorted to a jar or a packet has much more flavour making it yourself, is better quality and often isn't much more hassle than using the processed stuff - mostly needs a bit more organisation and pre-preparation. Been a bit of an eye opener really.

love all these recipes

today at a picnic I gave DD her tuna sandwich and turned my back by the time I turned round she'd snarfed 2 sausage rolls (before I could get to her) and 2 fairy cakes and then grabbed hold of DS' Darth Vader cup (by far her favourite drinking receptacle) and downed it (luckily he still has very dilute apple juice cos he likes it that way and it lasts longer

So pleased you said stock cube, Georgina!!
I must admit that I never did proper chicken stock with the pre-toddler AK recipes, just used water
Right, off to start bedtime routine - another thing that isn't as rigid as when DD was 1 year. I find I can't do a long, cuddly wind down in darkened room whilst keeping an ear out for any sounds of misbehaviour downstairs

Me too, Judd! And if I didn't think I could get away with water then I used watered down fresh stock (see below) or a very watery stock cube!

Just never ever had the time or inclination to make my own stock....!!

i used water in the ak recipes too.

wind down? oh, i missed that bit. poor dd gets her bottle in the lounge with a bit of a story if she's not too grizzly and dumped in her bed. in a loving, kissy way of course. at least that's sorted in time for the next one!

just a quicky, i havent been on for so long its taken me AGES to read all the latest threads. on the subject of stock cubes i use Kallo organic stock cubes they have no artificial nasties and have quite low sodium.[sainsburys]. Anyway i thought i'd pop back on as i have just wrapped a singing dipsy for THE FIRST BIRTHDAY tomorrow!!!!! i cant believe my little sophie is 1 tomorrow, i'm sitting here getting a bit maudlin thinking this time last year i was waiting for the 2nd pessary to kick in and get things started! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OUR MAY BABIES.

Libb, why would the landlord have to know if you're receiving Housing Benefit? You just get the Housing Benefit cheque sent directly to you, cash it into your bank account and pay the rent. The Landlord doesn't need to know where the rent is coming from so long as they get paid. This is what I did years ago when I got housing benefit and it's what my granny does.

Well, I've had a busy day. got absolutley loads of housework done and washing hung out as it was a lovely day. Picked up some travellers cheques at the bank, I know we're not going away until October but I'm taking advantage of the high rates. Had a 10 minute chat with the lady in the bank about Florida as she got married there last year and she was telling me all the places that we just have to see when we're there.
I voted, for the second time in my life.
And I was a helper tonight at dd1's Brownies, wow 22 giggly girls that was an experience and a half.

Going to have my dinner now. talk later.

Oooooh It's so exciting this month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to Georgina's DS1 and Sarahplus2's DD and to mini-prufrock and mini-twiglett recently!

I've not been around for a while. I've been off on holiday and it's been very stressful at work. Can't really say too much but I work for a major teaching institution and they appear to have just opened a brand new section that does exactly what we do but with a national external contracted company that we haven't got a hope in hell of doing as well as. Everyone thinks they are trying to replace us and close us down and they are all trying to jump ship a.s.a.p. It's a miserable atmosphere.

I, on the other hand, am less bothered. I do enjoy it but I'm only part-time now though and regard DS as my first job. I'm hanging in there to keep maternity rights because DH and I have just decided that it's time to try for number 2

Went on holiday to Center Parcs for my Dad's 60th Birthday a week or so ago and had such a great time. DS loved the baby's swimming pool with it's little slides and the playground. He now says weeeee when he sees or goes on a swing!

Nice recipes GeorginaA. They're about to be printed off to go with some others in my kitchen. DS is slowly going off jars and mushy stuff in favour of what we're having, only we have to make quite a lot of changes to what we normally have for it to be O.K. for him.

Worrying about all these accidents going on at the moment. Sounds like everyone survived them very well though. We're just about to install stair gates because DS can now crawl and pull up. He climbed up on the first step a few days ago so it's time. Stupid question... Anyone else got a cat? Do they manage the stair gates O.K?

Sorry to hear about all the trouble you've been having finding somewhere to live Libb. I really hope you get it sorted soon. I don't really know you very well but you sound like such a strong person.

Another random question. Can you give a 1 year old a cot bumper. The rules are confusing. Health visitors say only after they reach 1 year old so my Mum just bought DS a really nice one but on the packet it says you shouldn't use them after they sit up. So when can you use them then!

Last question! I remember when I started out there was this person called Casmie and she helped me out when I panicked about an accident. She was dead nice and had a baby about our age. Anyone know if she's still around?

Scuse the long email! Especially the work rant. Should actually do some work now, really