Jan 09 - weaning,smiling,laughing and chatting and loads more fun to come:)

[stripeywoollenhat]

there.

Oh Dewberry, I had that one too and my big sis was always bathed in a fog of white musk.

Am only going out for the evening on Friday, probably 7.00 ish until midnight, possibly later if the night goes well. Am then going out again the following Monday for a similar number of hours and Mum is babysitting both times so I know the dc's will be well cared for. Only thing is that dd has been sooo clingy recently and flatly refused to let Mum hold her at all last week, which is odd because she usually loves her.

I really miss being able to pop over to the beach at St Annes/Blackpool every weekend to run the dogs. We did go up there recently, but it was brass monkeys and ds2 was having none of it.

I thank my lucky stars DH is not in the slightest bit interested in sport - it would make me so mad if we had to plan things around matches.

Haven't had my flipping Kulfi yet, been busy searching for a present for my little sis's birthday - really struggling this year for some reason.

Noooo - you don't need a book! It really is that simple. Gordon Ramsey style rundown: Sit baby around table for meals with you and give them some food. They mash it, throw it around the room and occasionally eat some of it. Vary food lots and lots and don't favour things they seem to favour iyswim and before you know it - hey presto, weaned baby eating meals with the family. Easy peasy shame about the walls though

Hi ladies.

hkz hope the radio 4 did the trick. Invite them around for a glass of wine, be ultra-charming and let them play with the baby, get them hooked in, and then they'll feel bad next time they want to party, that's my advice!

dog hope you survived your day and are not too itchy. I don't know if any of you might remember the horrendous rash I endured for 6 long weeks back around week 24 of pg (OMG, feels like a lifetime ago!) - anyway, I learned that sensory overload is the best way to tackle itching - so very hot shower followed by freezing cold bath. If you're desperate.

MM what is kulfi?!

hkz and elkie looks like we are all on for next week despite various emails going missing, how exciting!

Lenni day on beach sounds like heaven, LOL at cleavage suntan mark! UV tent sounds great, do you have a link? Realised today we have no shade in our garden - really wanted to hang out there with LO but too hot!

Pat Nye is teething too, I am sure! Hands right into mouth, yelling in obvious pain occasionally, and cheeks look a little bit redder... surely 4 months is too early though? He is 4 months today. I am also going to do BLW but am waiting till 6 months, how about you? THanks Lenni for the instructions by the way!

Woops, I seem to have eaten half a Waitrose trifle while typing this. The big sort. It's nearly 11 anyway, and I really should go to bed, London tomorrow, woo-hoo!

Hmm, have a feeling the dogs are going to have a field day with the BLW when it gets going. They've only just recently stopped camping out under ds2's chair at mealtimes and they definitely recognised the highchair when it reappeared.

MissJ Kulfi is a traditional indian dessert, a bit like ice cream but with none of the crappy ingredients we get in a lot of our ice cream and made in a different way. Its usually flavoured with mango or pistachio or cardamom and saffron. Goes down a treat after a nice curry.

Mmmmm trifle!

I am such a pig I'm going to really suffer when I start my sugar detox next Monday - starting to dread it now.

Right, off to bed dd and dh appear to have abandoned me (to be fair, she's been asleep for hours now and he's been hinting at me to get of the computer for ages).

Night all.

moosemama SATS in infant school! silly. do they consider the birth date's of the children? good on ya for doing a detox. i simply do not have the will power. i make way too many cookies. (mmm, runs off to get one)

patthehammer when i was a teenager i wanted so badly to work at the Body Shop but no, i only got a job at the bingo hall as a cart girl. a good thing about it though was the place was the old roller rink and the roller skates were still there... even the disco ball and stereo system was hooked up. it was a good party.

i love the beach here. its rocky though. we used to live in a house years ago with another couple, that was a 2 minute walk to the beach. my friend and i would grab our sleeping bags and bundle up and poor red wine into fancy tupperwear and cart of to the beach to watch the sunset and start a fire and sleep till early morning before heading home. lovely. what a nice memory. i don't get to do that anymore but there are other things that fill that. still at the beach though. i haven't been swimming in the lake at the bottom of the hill though, mainly because there's always tweens their.

when the first two bottom middle teeth come in, that's it for a while, right? DD just seems to be drooling even more and both those teeth are in.

Chef Glad you've got a break from your neighbours...mine quietened down in the end...

Pat Books There must be something in the air, DDwas lovely yesterday...just wish she was like that everyday ...maybe she will be from now on and the terrible twos are over...yeah right!

LenniDay on beach sounds lovely, I miss living by the sea. I too have some very attactive tan lines due to lack of sun cream (gonna look fab under my wedding dress ) Good luck with the job apps.

Moose Glad you've had a good week. Good luck for DS with his SATs.I think SATs are daft, it really annoys me that we are still putting kids through them, I think it changes the whole learning experience for them, which is a real shame, as well as putting children under completely unnecessary pressure. Sorry to hear about your neighbour experience, I am being optimistic at the moment, but will be downloading some death metal just in case. Thanks for the nit tips too, and the link. I shall invest in some coconut shampoo...i love that smell, reminds me of holidays.

Bodyshop smells from the 80s made me think of white musk, EVERYONE at my school used to dowse themselves in it!

chef I seem to remember the teeth come through fairly regularly once they start

moose currently have DS1 in private pre-school (at a private school) we're debating whether to leave him there as the cost of gettint two of them schooled to 18 is a bit BUT no SATS....

missj mmm trifle - at least you can ride it off tomorrow.

pat I remember buying strawberry... then realising I didn't really want to smell of it!

dog how are the spots?

V. tired here as we're back to waking twice a night ...

morning off to asda then dhs parents over

mmmm bodyshop... twas dewberry at my school, and white ananya.... what is an ananya anyway? I did wear and love strawberry though SaS!

We're waking twice too... gums are bothering him, so he is a little cranky today.

SaS- no NC was the main reason we chose independent too. (it certainly wasn't for the vile uniform )

Am v of beach-going... it is just so far for us v crappy. When I was young if it was a nice day we'd just hop on the train and go to the beach for the day... I really miss that. It takes over 2 1/2 hours just to the coast... too long for littlies to spend in the car and then all the drive home too.... [grr]

UV tent for MissJ

We're waking at least twice here too - gets you down after a while doesn't it.

White musk here whilst at school - anyone would have thought the stuff was liquid gold with the status that stuff was given

We went to St Annes MM - a proper British seaside there complete with amusements pier and promenade. I love it there as it is so stereotypical of the seaside, makes me smile.

Don't get me started on SATs [grrr] What annoys me most is the way our local primary head does news items in the parish magazine about the KS1 SATs and end of year tests as if they are some kind of rite of passage - FFS the poor kids [more grrrss]

Right, best go... back soon.

Right.....going to make an ATTEMPT to catch up...

Sorry to hear some of you are having twice nightly wakings... i was just about to moan that Esme has now decided not to do 7am-7pm (did it for about 3 weeks, knew too good to be true) is now having a feed around 3am. Tried settling her back to sleep without feeding, but was quite obviously hungry, and took not once side, but most of the other too! Like Dog Said, its SUCH a shock to the system when you aren't used to the night time waking!

MissJ i too thought Esme was teething a few weeks ago, she was showing all the signs, and needing a bib ALL the time because of the copious amount of dribble... but... No Teeth have appeared, and the dribbling has slowed? Mmmmmmm Waitrose Triffle! How are we going to wean ourselves off the sweet treats when BF stops? Enjoy Your day in London!?

Dog How was House? Is your house now Pox free ( Sorry out of touch) Rubbish your in Brighton one of the only weekends we aren't! Boo! nevermind, maybe next time!

Today we're having a quiet day at home... getting some washing done, lazing in the garden, mowing the lawn etc.

Tomorrow its Esme's first party. One of OH's team mates' has a boy thats turning 1. Should be fun.

We're off to Disney on Tuesday! bought the trip for OH's birthday back in May. Esme very set in her routine, so we'll see how that goes. Stripey is C in a set routine feeding & sleeping around the same times? how did she manage on holiday?

Oh..... Esme had been getting a bit fussy about settling herself to sleep. Something i've very keen for her to be able to do. Don't want her (no offense meant to anyone who uses any of these methods, just personal preference) to have a dummy, or need rocking or feeding to sleep. Decided that she was perhaps being overstimulated before napping, so have started yesterday and today, when we're home, taking her to her nursery about 15 mins before i want her to nap. Putting baby einstein lullabies on, half drawing the blind, and sitting her in the rocking chair while i neaten things up..... She relaxes, gets a bit drowsy, then i pop her in her cot and she sucks her hands a bit and slips of to sleep. Shes also napping longer, as she'd cut her 45 mins naps right back to about 20 mins. Happy Mummy! Just thought i'd share what's now working for us incase any of you are finding nap times hard right now.

Right... Lawn in Mowed- so can pop washing out. Enjoy Rays ladies! xxxxxx

Hi all, just a quickie, yet another night with no sleep, dd all over the shop - again! I have a killer headache as a result so won't stay online long.

I had heard that the teachers are going to boycott SATs next year, typical, poor ds1 has to go through them, but maybe ds2 won't have to as he's only in Reception year. Our school is pretty good really, the children aren't at all stressed about them and just see them as a normal part of school. We do however, have a new very results driven headmaster who has quite obviously modelled himself on Tony Blair! So a lot of hooting is done about the results for that reason. Ds1 is such a clever little chap, he can easily do the tests, but being a boy and having his er 'issues' he has a strong tendency to not read the questions properly and insist of doing everything the long way round which means he might not even finish the papers. I shouldn't care as they say they are not measured by the results, but that's not strictly true is it as the results do go on their school records.

Ray I read recently that they can have teething symptoms on and off for months as the teeth just moving through the lower gums can be really uncomfortable. Tis all new to me - neither of the boys suffered with their teeth.

Lennied we used to go to St Annes every weekend to run the dogs, I also went to dog training club their every week. We soooo nearly bought one of those huge 3 storey victorian houses right on the front near the little cafe, but we chickened out as we were £3,000 short - needless to say we are kicking ourselves now as they tripled in price shortly afterwards - doh!

Dog we used to have to lock the dogs in the back porch or they would literally sit with their noses on ds2's lap to catch the drips! Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better, sorry for poor little Arlo though. Good luck with the house viewing.

We have a huge uv beach cabana which I usually lie in and read with the little old lady dog while the boys and daddy dig to Australia - this year I shall be accompanied by the small one - may need to look into getting an even bigger one if this keeps up!

Funky moose do a fun selection of cabanas

Right boys just nipping to barbers with Daddy then we are off to buy Henley Icecreams and go for a walk in the park.

Moose perhaps that explains the symptoms! Sorry to hear of your sleepless night! Icecream and a walk in the park sounds lovely & very well deserved!!

Meant to say earlier... i bought Esme (Lucky Tot- i don't think i buy myself ANYTHING anymore!!!) one of those Fisher price Jumperoos. I had read reviews they were very good and entertaining and had toyed with buying her one... but while going to pick up some food bits (the local Co-op is right next to Argos) i saw it was on offer... from about £100 to £60 ish! Mummy couldn't resist. Anyway... just wanted to say if you can get hold of one (yes £100 seems alot...but...) they are brilliant. She is absolutely mesmorised with the toys, bouncing, et. Plus its very safe and comfy if i need to run and do some bits!

Work avoiding.

DS loves his jumperoo too - we managed to pick ours up from NCT sale for £25 and it was practically brand new, £60 a bargain new! NCT sale next weekend here - yay!

Everything crossed Dog

hi

i had white musk brings back memorys.

had a good time in asda
enjoyed aft with mil too hot though !!!

Glad house was good dog

teething beginning here too moose

v tired, early night I think...

Oh, good luck with the house dog sounds fab . Zach has only just gone in his cot on monday and he is far from a tiny newborn! His SECOND tooth is now coming through, guess he's going to be the same as DD who I had to start taking to the dentist at 11 months cos she nearly had a full set. Toys wise Zach just has Evie's old stuff erm stacking rings, crinkly books, teethers, squishy blocks, mobile, some nice jellycat teddies, wind up musical things, v-tech flashing ball but he most of all seems to love his peter rabbit rattle! He sits nicely now so loves his blow-up ring thing and his door bouncer. Not so keen on the baby gym anymore. Oh, he does like some of the Taggies stuff, gives that a good suck!

MissJ I am aiming around the 6mth mark with Zach to start BLW, but I may have said before I'm not a stickler for exact weeks. As far as I'm concerned babies do stuff when their ready and nothing is exact (erm, remember due dates for example!!!!)

Moose Hope your night out is going ok (was it tonight I can't remember!).

Ray Jumperoo's are great, my friend has one. We have NO room for any more baby equipment here sadly but I agree with Lenni NCT sales are great for this sort of thing, bargains galore!

No time to catch up anymore, sorry, hope everyone had a fab day. Went to park, had ice-cream, picnic and lovely stroll this morning. Attempted to feed ducks with value loaf and they were not bothered so we bought it home and I just made a bread and butter pudding.....it was lush!! Really stocking up in time for the detox on monday, gonna do my weigh in tomorrow

Oh, forgot my favourite Body Shop anecdote! One summer I signed for an agency and ended up working as a tea lady in the head office. Sounds shite but it was a FAB job as everyone really loved you as they really appreciate a cuppa. Did my little rounds with a trolley, anyway I covered Anita Roddick's floor for 2 weeks, she was really tiny and only ever had mineral water. But.......get this......she was too lazy to open it and I had to pour it into her glass for her! God, just remembered the smell of banana conditioner too, used to really make me hungry!

Oh, and as for SATs.....no comment