June 2008: birthdays, bunting and bumps make mummy a little bit tired!

[pureeandpearls]

Bring it on!!!

Thanks Ali - but will you use them out of the house though?

Hi,

Bunting worked out beautifully Essie, haven't posted photos yet, but I will - I'll tag you so you can admire it in its wonderfulness!

Birthday was fab, Lottie had a great time, Ils behaved, ball pool is a big hit, and cake my Mum and her friend made was fabulous (photos on face book when I can find the wire to attach!)

Tok C to see her Gerat grandparents yesterday on her actual birthday. I now possess the funniest video clip ever - no toys to play with while visiting a frail elderly relative? never fear, you can entertain your small child with a zimmer frame. C spent 20 very happy minutes using it as a baby walker, it's far better than her own, very stable and a dream to push - she built up quite some speed, definitely faster than great Grandad!

whinegums have sent you a message.

Love the idea of Lottie with the zimmer frame!

Bit tipsy on champagne here - yaaay! (Sad, though, that my Big Night Out is...Selden Society!) Had a great time and Iestyn went to sleep without a bf - using Ali's DH's technique (i.e. nothing - was that Ali?)

Five I think it sounds like a lovely present. I always prefer something homemade like that over shop bought stuff. I also love tins. (Hmm, might try to get myself on your present list! You do have a Welsh surname...) Also Five go for it with finding your half brother. My mum was adopted as a baby (10 days - how tough was my natural grandmother giving up a baby like that?) Mum discovered that she had a half brother, but it didn't work out well when she contacted him - his dad had an affair which nobody knew about (resulting in my Mum) but I guess anybody would find that hard. It's a longer story than that, too!

Deb he slept for 2 1/2 hours! And had another nap after lunch!

Yes Essie it was James on the "not bothering" school of bedtime feed. Glad you had fun tonight. Will make plans in the morning for tomorrow.

Viva - like the zimmer frame story

Deb - I will be brave and take the bib tomorrow when I see Penguin and Essie. I dare anyone to question whether my 27lb baby is anything other than a boy even if he is wearing a pink bib. Makes a change from stripes at least.

essie I was so impressed with you last year - I'm relieved that you're impressed now too. superwomen always make me feel rather inadequate....

neenz it's amazing how your two are developing so differently (walking, standing etc). Have a great time on your holiday!

five yes to tins if filled with biscuits - my mom does that every year and people tell her they love it. It must be a hard decision about your half-brother, do all your other siblings feel the same about contact?

deb more rain? It seems very cruel...

Fraser has his jabs today... I'm off work in one hour to take him there so I guess I should do something in the meantime.

LOL Abdn, can I stress again how sh!t I was (am?) at mothering? Less superwoman, more selfish! (And shameless too, clearly!)

Iestyn has gone for a nap but want to do a smidge of work - I've discovered the best way to get him to nap is to basically ignore him. (See, selfish again! ) I put him in the cot just now where he was standing up and mucking around, whilst I folded laundry. Hadn't finished the laundry when I realised that all was quiet... he must decide 'well stuff this then, if nobody's going to play with me, I might as well sleep'!

Hope the jabs go ok, Abdn. Deb hope the weather is better and that the children are also better! Neenz have a great time! Hello to everyone else, and off to see Ali and her little girl boy and penguin and Ryder.

Morning, back from the drs - Ethan's check up, apparently he's at the top of the chart for his height but way down onhis weight - so advice please on high calorie, healthy food

Morning everyone,

I think my DH has also been to that school of bedtime feeding Ali, he appeared downstairs the other week having put J down without me going up to feed him. Said he seemed pretty settled so he just put him down. It's worked fine and in some ways it's probably a good thing that it wasn't me who made the decision as I was more reluctant to give up my snoozy cuddle and book reading session that it had become!
Unfortunately the days I put him down on my own he doesn't settle as well, think he remembers that something is missing.

I have a little monkey here, yesterday he decided to start climbing on everything, found a handy box to stand on to reach all the CDs and pull them off the shelf then used that to climb onto a table and have access to the shelves, I keep telling him no and removing him from the naughtiness he is up to, which makes him scream, and then he just goes straight back to it, it's driving me mad! How are the rest of you getting on with discipline? It doesn't seem to have much effect here.

Five - you've got me thinking about christmas, this year I'm going to be organised and make cheap presents as we are skint (I keep buying silly things like a Vax!) and do it all in plenty of time.
Hang on I say this every year and still leave it to a last minute dash round the shops to buy a load of tat that no one wants! At least with something homemade some thought and effort goes into it, I once made a variety of biscuits and put them in those glass jars lids on (kilner jars?) and decorated it with ribbons. They were very popular and cheap although it did mean I spent every evening baking on the run up to Christmas.

J has woken from his nap, better go and bring the monkey down!

Neenz I have just got home from Formby where I got chatting to a lovely gentleman in the park, who it turned out is your father in law! Small world!

Rolf - did you tell him to stop dropping in unannounced? you are right though, it is a small world.

Currently sitting inthe carpark of a softplay centre. P asleep, me eating his lunch, waiting for PP and Essie. Think PPs husband just drove past, but he has disappeared. You can tell it is London as what kind of soft play area has free wifi?

Essie is here!

lol Ali - suggesting Rolf advise Neenz's fil to stop dropping in!!!

How was the soft play? And more to the point how was the purple bib?

Good luck with your little monkey Ktpie, I thought I'd cracked the saying no to Ethan and having some effect(bottom lip and tears) but I think he was just feeling poorly and this week - it doesn't make any difference

Deb does the bottom lip and tears refer to you or Ethan?

Well the purple bib was used in public in conjunction with a pink tommee tippee classic beaker. No-one laughed at us. Iestyn had a pink beaker too. Solidarity - yay!

We had a good afternoon. The boys were all lovely. Ktpie I have a monkey too. At the softplay area he decided to crawl down the slide headfirst. He thought it was a hoot. He then did a Houdini act and scared the life out of me. PP found him between the perimeter fencing and a Wendy House. So all in all I am struggling with convincing Peter that there are boundaries as to what he can and can't do.

Hi all, been lurking but not posting - can't keep up as RL keeps getting in the way!

Loving the thought of P in a pink bib - where are the photos Ali?

Well A is walking alot now (when does a baby properly qualify as 'walking'?!) - he can walk up and down the hall with me holding one hand, and can do 12-15 steps on his own. Haven't managed to catch it on vid yet, but you know me, it won't be long!

Quick question from a novice mum - how do you 'teach' children to come down the stairs safely? Alex has been climbing the stairs for a couple of months now but is completely baffled at how to get down! He either stands at the top and cries to be rescued or lies on his tummy and tries to launch himself head first !

Any advice gratefully received .

Hi to everyone else, and special hugs to rain soaked Deb .

Aah Sponge - thanks for the hugs

BIG NEWS - get your calendars out, the TV Programme is finally going to be shown
Tuesday 25th August at 10.30 am on ITV1 (usual this morning time)The series starts on 20th July , but the 25th August is when we're on. I am dreading it now!!

Yay Debs- finally!

Sponge- turn him on his tummy and guide his legs down from one step to the next (so basically the opposite of what he does to crawl up) If he can crawl up, he'll get it fairly quickly.

Hi all. Lot on, so am lurking.

Deb, I thought you were going to say Big News, it's stopped raining in Austria!!

How exciting - keep reminding us cos I'll forget and don't want to miss it! How cool - you're going to be on the telly !

Thanks, P&P, I did try that initially, but every time I started guiding him down he crawled straight back up again and giggled his head off!!

Will perservere!

How exciting Deb .

Sponge what Puree said. When I was helping her climb down from the sofa I'd say "turn around", "feet first" which I'm trying with the stairs, but she hasn't got the hang of it yet. I think she's quite enjoying the adventure of racing up and yelling for her sidekicks!

Puree, Sponge and KT how are you all feeling?

Amber if you're lurking, hope you're ok.

Hi to everyone else

I have been having the same stair trouble Bill. I found this video today on MN:

stairsvid

I have tried the advice, but like you, P crawls up when I try to point his feet down. He then goes to the top of the stairs and cackles at me from above.

No photos of the pink bib I am afraid.

Same stair problems here, left to his own devices coming down the stairs involves standing at the top holding onto the stair gate on either side then attempting to step down in a very delicate manner. We keep guiding him down backwards on all fours (him not us) but he also gets about half way down then wants to go back up. Guess we just have to keep persisting.

My morning sickness had come back with a vengeance this morning, because I had a lie in, until 7am! Good sign I think as I had been worried about lack of symptoms. Also spent most of yesterday afternoon asleep on the sofa while J got up to mischief (he has a habit at the moment of hiding everything under the sofa when I'm not looking).

J seems to have worked out which things are naughty and starts looking at me before he does them with a big grin on his face ready to giggle like mad when I say no, I'm thinking this isn't a good thing, looking for attention perhaps?

Debs I'm looking forward to seeing you on TV, hope ITV is working for us that day, bit dodgy here, we have decided the aerial may be pointing in the wrong direction, not keen on sending DH up to move it, was it Rod Hull who fell off the roof adjusting his aerial? (I hate heights and worry too much!)

Hi all quick post to mark place as back from holiday- will post properly later as have to keep an eye on edie. Deb great news re tv and ktpie hope you aren't feeling too bad. Hi to everyone else will catch up later x

Welcome home Poppy

Hi everyone, I'm back from the birthday celebrations! I'm well known in my family for having a birthday 'week' and it would appear that I've projected this onto S! We've had a fab few days, and I'm pleased to say that the cake was a big hit. We had family staying for a few days as well which was pretty exhausting, but we put S in nursery today and both DH and I have taken the day off just to chill a bit. So I'll be spending the next couple of hours sorting through the squillions of photos we've taken (and no doubt putting some on facebook and S's blog) and then hopefully squeezing in some studying.

Right I need to try and catch up with this thread...

I've missed quite a bit I think, so I'll just go back two pages...

On the 'turning up unannounced' chat - I hate that too! I like at least a bit of notice so I can run round with a hoover and give the bathrooms a squirt of something!

Sorry to hear about all the poorly babies - hope they are all doing much better now.

Well done on the move paro - that journey sounds like a major accomplishment in itself!!!

Essie glad you had fun at wimbledon. I went a few years back on women's semi final day and the weather was glorious, I really enjoyed it. Got seriously sunburnt though

Neenz hope you have a lovely time in Pisa. Am very of all these holidays. Please tell me somone else isn't getting a way this year?

Viva and whinegums hope you had lots of fun at birthday celebrations (and everyone else too who had them recently). Need to have a nosy on fb to see who has photos on recently.

Mmmmm, at venison 5. Did you get some? Also think the tins are a good idea. I've actually bought some Christmas presents already

On the bibetta bibs - does anyone have the small ones? Thinking of getting a couple of the small blue ones as I see they go up to 2.5 years, but wondering how small is small really?

Deb - sorry to hear about your woes. I hope you get lovely weather for the school woes. 9 weeks school holiday though? That's a long time!

Deb on Ethan's weight - S is a wee bit the same. His height and weight started at the same centile but as I've worried about lots, his weight has steadily dropped down the centiles but his height has stayed the same. I think he's crept down to about 15 on the weight centiles despite starting out at 75. I was quite relieved his height stayed quite high though, it reassured me that his growth hadn't been stunted or anything - he has just been developing into a bit of a featherweight! He's eating much more solids now that I've quite ruthlessly cut out two more milk feeds (went cold turkey a few weeks ago with mid afternoon feed and then cut out the breakfast feed on his 1st birthday), and actually drinking a lot of cows milk and water during the day. I usually give him a nice fattening yoghurt in the morning and try and include cheese with a mid afternoon snack in my vain attempt to fatten him up.

On the feeds, as in paragraph before we've cut out two and just got the bedtime one to go. Am going to give it a try once this relatively new pack of formula is done. We did ditch our big steriliser on Monday and am sooooo pleased to have that space back in the kitchen

Loving the free wifi in the soft play and more than a bit jealous Alipalli

On meet ups whinegums and viva I know that driving into the centre of Edinburgh is not appealing (particularly with the tram works), but could I tempt you to a wee train journey east? There's a really cute little garden exhibition on at the National Musuem. I took S the other day and it was good fun. It would be much quieter after the kids go back to school next month too (I think they go back on the 19 Aug). Otherwise, whinegums we talked about meeting up at the soft play (at the Ratho climbing centre) on the outskirts of Edinburgh which is practically at the end of the M8. My next free Monday (only day off nowadays) is 4 August. Viva are you off on Mondays too? Anyway, fb message me and let me know what you think.

Interesting to read all the stair safe stuff. I've being trying to teach S to climb down from things. He was at a really good soft play the other day that had a great climbing bit for under 3's (why do so many soft play places thing that a few cubes and a rocking animal are more than sufficient for toddlers?) and he clambered away up to the top all by himself [proud mummy]. However, he decided he wanted to come back down and was sort of hesitantly trying to put his feet down first. I did have to go and get him though. We've put stairgates at the top of the stairs but none at the bottom so really need to spend some time with him on climbing down safely.

On that note, anyone got any parenting type books for the 1 year plus stage? I know some people think they're a complete waste of money but I quite like them. I used GF and 'What to expect...' books for the first year but would be interested in any recommendations? I'm quite into free play, but would also like to read up a bit on thoughts around discipline, helping development etc.

Sorry about the morning sickness ktpie!

Right, I think I've caught up with most things so I'm going to go catch up with fb now!

Bdq am with you about only going back a couple of pages- looking forward to your photos.
Are bibetta the neoprene ones you can turn up bottom? In Which case go large as small ones. Bit narrow and short although I am a big fan of mothercare ones with sleeves although they have a shortish life as seem to stain and attract mildew ( I am not that slovenly but you only have to rinse them and wAsh them later that day and it happens). So on balance think I am a fan of long sleeves rather than the material.
Going to see oasis tonight and feel wiped out