Dec 08 it's time for sippy, tippy and doidy cups (& wee sticks!?!)

[Veggiemummy]

sorry could think of much and these where discuss on last page.

Lady, when will you get the survey back? Does it need major work like walls coming down etc? how many bedrooms? I can't wait until we can do up another place.... renting sucks - oh and good news for you Indith - re the housing situation!!

I am getting thoroughly annoyed with DH's work now. They are meant to put up the rota 3 weeks in advance so he should now what he is working next week and the week after. But they haven't been putting them up so he has no idea what he is working next week so I can't book a driving lesson for next week.

trace - good luck with the interview, I think it was today? Also on the drinking, if P won't, don't worry too much, just try and give her liquidy things to eat, yogurt, fruit/purees, porridge, that kind of thing. There is plenty of liquid in baby food!

LadyT/pmk/Indith* - sounds exciting about the housing situation! pmk - I think it probably is just a question of deciding whether you want to gamble either on the house, or on trying for 12 months with no break - not sure asking the wife anything would give you any more information. In your shoes, I'd probably gamble!

To those suffering with flu - hope things get better soon - the quarantine must be really miserable!

Effie/Indith - we've just toilet trained DD - its a slog isn't it! If its any consolation, poos definitely took longer than staying dry (not helped by a long bout of diarrheoa just as she was getting the hang of things). As far as going out and about was concerned, we just went for it and left the nappy off once I was convinced she was capable of not getting wet. We had a few accidents, but she did work out what she needed to do. BTW - she still can't reliably tell us if she needs the potty, so we still need to put her on it once in a while if we expect her to stay dry...

Veggie - don't even get me started on unreasonable SILs. Mine seems to be completely inflexible about everything. Were basically thrown out of their house a few weeks ago as DD was TT and, as it was tired, late afternoon and early days, she wee'd twice (on their wooden floor). SIL then insisted that we put her in a nappy. She (DD not SIL) hadn't been in a nappy for a couple of weeks at that point, so to put one on her then would have seemed like a bit of a punishment. So we left. Wouldn't have been too bothered except that she has 2 small children of her own so must have been through it all herself. Fed up generally with trying to bend over backwards to fit in with whatever she demands so that the cousins can meet.

daisydora - the sleep thing is such a merrygoround isn't it? DS is always lulling me into a sense of security, say waking up only once in the night, or (twice) sleeping through and then the last few nights he is back to waking up every 2-3 hours through the night.

Otherwise the big news in our household is that DS has 2 teeth! Not too much trauma as they actually came out, but lots of wailing a few weeks beforehand if that's any help veggie. DH is away on a (probably soggy) boys camping trip in Scotland this week, so trying to get through one day at a time at the moment...

No time to read as must make a bolognaise whilst I have 2/3 asleep..... just wanted to say hello to WG, how was your night, I was up at 5am and thought of you in the frozen north. I really hope you have had a bit o sleep and are feeling brighter today. Lots of love

Hello everyone else, back on later for a gossip I hope

hello all - thank you for asking about me (syb - are you having a pot shot at north london? just because we're north of the river, doesn't mean it's a frozen wasteland!)

well, after the tears, and as you know there were many, a friend came round and babysat madam while dh and i went to a comedy show (2 friends performing). i laughed like a drain, whether from good comedy, or from being released from prison. we then got ourselves a takeaway pizza, came home, and ate it here. we were only gone for 2 1/2 hours, but it was lovely. madam behaved v well for our friend, but once we were back, she woke up every 3-4 hours. but, it's a state of mind and i'd got myself calm again and it was manageable. i'm sorry i always vent the bad things on here - and i thank you for the good wishes.

i really want to get her out of our room, but dh seems v reluctant. what with the situation with his dad, i don't want to push him, but will have to if things haven't shifted in a couple of weeks. there is no way we can do any sort of sleep training (whether that is cc or simply waiting 5 mins before responding to her in the night) if she is right next to us.

having a much better day with her today - she hasn't napped at the right time in the right ways, but she has slept a bit, and that is fine by me. am such a one for soaking up the "you're not doing it right" brigade. must stop.

v excited about your house, ladyt.

those of you TT, bloody hell! do we have to go through that in a couple of years. oh, hell.

well, we are up with the mentalist inlaws at the weekend, finding out results of the scan. gulp.

am v impressed with some of your eating - madam is offered solid food only twice a day and for the last couple of days she has refused it completely. am slightly worried, especially when i do the cardinal sin of compare her to some of the fantastic eaters on the thread. must stop comparing. but anyone else had some downright refusals to eat? am presuming it will pass. am hoping it will pass...

oh, and forgot to say, that despite complete lack of interest in rolling, crawling, etc. madam is very keen on standing. holding on to her baby gym (solid) arches and wobbling around like a drunk lunatic. oh, and she is still incredibly vocal - she tries to sing with me when i sing her a lullaby before bedtime. bless...

WG - my little darling will only deign to open her mouth if the food is 'cut' with something sweet, ie: pureed lentil bake - clamps gob shut; parent stirs in apple yoghurt or pear puree or what have you - magically eats. It's not ideal but she is so stubborn, if I didn't add in sweet stuff she simply would not eat. It was only sweeter purees (and I mean fruit ones, not sweet in the way carrot is) that got her interested in eating at all. If you are worried about her eating, try Ella's Kitchen Apple and Strawberry, as every baby I have ever heard of virtually bites the spoon off when it comes to this. But then you might end up with a savoury refusenik, like mine!

PMK - well, I have phoned the surveyor and he will probably be really slow even going out there like last time but it is a dilapidated four bedrooms with a big, totally out of control garden. I haven't owned a whole house or a garden before (not as a grown up). Don't know quite what needs doing...roof stuff, possibly electrics, two new bathrooms (one of which is sufferable) and it has solid fuel central heating so we might want to change that. It needs extensive redecoration throughout. Quite a project, given that I loathe DIY...DP claims to be very handy but having only known him since May 2007 and never having seen him prove it, he might be talking through his, er, arm for all I know!

Oh and PMK I will certainly come and visit you, try and keep me away, but I am not setting foot in the Fat Duck again until I am something approaching a normal size!

Glad you had a good night wg

The Fat Duck eh pmk? Can I come too? We have this place here, looks like it has a new chef now but when we went it was all Heston-like, it won an award for a desert that was a ball of earl grey (liquid nitrogen frozen) with puree of toast and marmalade. Am hoping that by some miracle dd will sleep by the end of August so I can make dh take me for our anniversary.

wg, glad you & dh had a nice night out. No advice on the eating front though I'm afraid.

I wonder how trace's interview has gone?

kayz glad you're enjoying your lessons. I'm sure you'll pass the theory when you come to take it

effie yay on tt! Its great when they crack it isn't it?

pmk did you decide on the house?

indith hope you manage to have a rest

I finally met a nice HV today . So many people have been telling me how big ds2 is, that he looks like a 1yr old & that I should be cutting down his milk so thought I'd get him weighed. Anyway, he's following his curve perfectly & she's said no need to worry at all, he's fine! That'll teach me for listening to other people

And ds2 has learnt how to play peekaboo! He covers his face with his muslin, we ask 'where's ds2' & then he pulls it off laughing. Its so sweet when ds1 & ds2 play it together

Also, meant to say I'm going to be in Yorkshire for a few days in August if anyone fancies meeting up?

veggie if you are coming down in Sept then would love to meet up then.

Loving the thought of me stripping on the Eurostar arti. If anyone can remember that far back. I am so behind. And I think I've got this stupid frickin flu. Am in bed feeling absolutely dreadful. And we're supposed to be going away on Friday. Ass.

Other than that - nice to see you back LadyT. Good luck with the house pmk. And veggie just the thought of you doing a 4k run after cycling makes me tired.

And sympathies to Indith and Kim. Can I ask a stupid question? How long did it take for everyone in the house to get it? I know I'm not going to be very good at DD being ill again. Since she came out of hospital she's been absolutely fine and the thought of her having so much as a temperature puts me in a mad panic. Irrational I know.

Tilly, would love to see you again so just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Our neighbour might have swine flu!! The dr said it looks like tonsilitious(awful spelling) but that it could also be swine flu. Little bit worried now.

Oh Kayz is it the 'spiritual' neighbour?

WG so pleased you had a nice night out, was the pizza a good one. Oh I feel like pizza now.

Lady your new home (I'm going to assume all will be fine with the survey) sounds a challenge but worth it. DH sounds a little like your DP with the DIY, I've no doubt he would be good at it but sometimes I think it's best to leave some things to the professionals, or at least friends we know who are professionals. I think as he's in IT he would like to have a go at serious DIY because he views working with his hands in that way as proper mans work.

Kayz sorry about your DH's late rota, I know how much of a pain it is. When I used to work on the wards we all waited on the Rota so we could plan our lives for the next month.

Indith I think we may have the same SIL. I had friends like that back home. They made a big fuss about DS1 & I coming to visit so we flew down to Melbourne esp to see them and they went mental about DS1's 1 little parcel that he left on their wood floor which I thoroughly cleaned up. Even after we left they were going on about they couldn't believe how difficult a 2 year old was, which I was a bit hurt about because DS1 is actually a really easy going sweet boy who was actually quite a pleasure for a 2 year old. At the time they had a one year old who we all had to remain silent for when he was sleeping or napping. I was so pleased to get out of that house in the end but grumpy that I had gone all the way to Melbourne to see them only to have my child chastised. I hope they have worked our by now that he is quite normal.

well i've asked for a straight 12 mth contract and he has said it's fine - then I started to worry if i'd done the right thing, and what if our Henley tenant leaves after 6 months atc.... but at the end of the day we still need somewhere to live, right? And our flat is quite let-able so I shouldn't worry. Plus we can never move back to our flat with the dog so....
We move in Sept 1st! Yay - no more treking to my car down the side street as it has parking !

Lady, that house sounds like my dh's idea of heaven. We lived on a building site doing up our flat for about 18 months, and if you can get through that without murdering one another.... well you can get through anything!
If you need any good - probably pretty cheap trademen - dh is brilliant at laying solid oak flooring, knocking walls down, and loads of bespoke carpentary work. He has more tools than your average builder, and his brother is a fantastic tiler plus also jack of all diy trades... and more than likely looking for work in Sept I know becuase he did most of our luxury bathroom in the flat, which was a brilliant job too, and me - I'm pretty good at stripping wallpaper and I helped lay the oak floor plus I sanded the kitchen counter top but I definitely prefer to leave the boys to it and head out for non-dusty, cheerful filled lunches with partners of such diy enthusiests Glad you will visit and now that i'll be closer i'll drive out your way when you get a free day (which sound rare!) or Reading as well....
if there is a meet up in Sept, I'm in! And if I can find the spare cash to go to Paris I'd be up for it however I can't justify it at the moment with all this moving and what not.
Hope you feel better soon Lal Gosh everyone is getting it.
Lady ds will only mainly eat sweet stuff too. I'm pretty happy though that he likes my sweet potato and pumpkin puree, but he really likes Rachels kitchen yoghurts, and if there's anything not sweet he won't eat, I mix some Philly cream cheese in it and he wolfes it down so try that
Ok he's on all 4's now but has no idea what to do, so waits until his arms give away then he crashes face first to the ground and fortunately giggles!
Ok, must get dinner on....

Veggie it is her DH!!

Vegge I don't have a SIL

dinner calling then sleep!

Sorry Indith that was for Invisible.

I had a lady at the chip shop look at me with distain today because I had DS2 in the sling, she said she would never have used one because they are dangerous because I could trip over. I said I never had any trouble but had had my pushchair fall over a few times so was probably safer than that. I was actually tempted to suggest while she might be against using a sling, she should consider using a toothbrush because she had the most terrible tooth decay, but thought better of it.

She might be relate to your neighbour Kayz. Hey you should go next door and suggest they use some herbal remedies!!!

Oh and Daisy that is very sensible of GMTV to broadcast that. I wish more TV shows would be more comfortable with advocating BF.

lol @ Veggie!!

Oooh Veggie I have been meaning to tell you that I have the coolest brother. He went to London on Friday and despite being a Chelsea fan, he went to the emirates and got ds1 a football, ds2 pjs like a away strip and he got me an Arsenal football manager game.

Bloody hell, I went out for a run before. Well I say run, it was more like a penguin shuffling across a frozen lake. I only managed about 15 mins before my lungs felt like they were about to explode, but I feel quite pleased with myself tbh

veggie

The reactions you get from sling wearing are funny, I've had some looks with DS2 but luckily only nice comments (he looks so comfy in there etc.).

TT: well, we're not there yet but at least DS1 has been dry for a few days. Indith: he was going pretty well then had a big regression (prob attention seeking as DS2 had a sudden jump and started demanding more of me) so I stiuck him back in pull-ups for a few days which prob didn't help but at least stopped me from going insane. Now he's started taking himself off for a wee (again) but still needs reminding regularly and won't poo in the toilet or potty at all. Sigh.

On the light entertainment front, we've discovered 4 on demand (have a look, lots of really good stuff) and Shameless, which has to fall into the hige category of great telly no-one told us about before... we're on series 2 and it is cracking. Oh and lots of back episodes of Peep Show, yet another series we managed to miss in The Days Before Internet Telly.

pmk: yay on the house! Are you still going to be in London?

WG: your night out sounds great . Re: food, DS1 didn't really get the point of solids till he was 8 or 9 months, and wasn't eating much till about 10 or 12 months. He still prefers bland, known foods and turns his nose up at green stuff. DS2 in contrast will eat anything within reach, including paper, grass and DS1's feet (yuck). I think the 'food is for fun until they're one' mantra is worth repeating to yourself! If R is growing and developing then she's obviously getting what she needs.

Darling WG, I'd love to have been a norf londoner, but I was lured sarf by a house in 1994. The north may be frozen but the sarf is the swine flu capital of the country. There are 4 houses in my road with it which I know about, so there may be others. Glad you had a good night out and feel more yourself.

Lal, huge sympathies on the lurgy, the swiners round here are getting better in a couple of days, so fingers crossed all is short lived. How are you two feeling now, Indith and Kim?

Is the fatties thread still going? Am feeling a bit blubbery and could do with a motivational kick?

Veggie, your energy and vim really amaze me! On reflection, I probably can't afford a paris meet as I keep forgetting that I only have a mini job and a mini salary now, but am definitely up for the London one.

Very exciting news about the houses, LadyT and PMK. I love the idea of you popping in to see each other. Very impressed by PMK's DH being all DIY and by the plans for LadyT's new gaff. Alas my DH cannot wield a spanner to save his life, but I do have Super Sue the whizzy cleaner who has done various bits to our house, inc painting, mending my car, gardening, putting up shelves. Perhaps I should have married her?!

Where is SL? I miss her.

Oops, someone out of bed on the stairs. Back shortly I hope.

Sybs, I should think SL has despaired of us since the Fatties thread has been languishing!

I will go back on it tonight. See you there. Anyone else coming over?

Lal - you poor old sausage

PMK - funnily enough the surveyor made the same remark to me on the phone earlier when I booked him - asked me seriously if our relationship will survive it Well, I think if we work on different tasks all will be well. Seriously - are you volunteering your DH and BIL for some paid work Isn't your DH too busy? If we get this place you will have to come over for a poke around it. I must say the surveyor sounded a bit dubious, and he hasn't even seen it! I think it's great that you have got 12 months for your new place. What's it like?

Daisy, you are running as well? Wowzers!

'Running' in the loosest sense of the word ladyt. I'll have another go at the fatties thread, I'm still at WW but not doing too great tbh