May 2009 - This too shall pass.. from leg warmers to pennies

[Momino]

this too shall pass!

Febes that's a good idea about the toy library. We have one here, I've not been yet but I hear it's very good.

The jumperoo cost less than DH's unpaid parking fine, grr!

Re going to sleep at night, H was a nightmare for weeks but has now settled down. It seems a lot of these things go with development phases. I guess it's a case of enjoying the good ones and remembering the bad ones will pass.

Spangle You are a wise woman

Hi there, sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I read, but I never seem to have 2 hands to type (can't do it one handed!!)

Belgian and Llare congrats on the move and the new business premises.

Sorry for those who've had a bad time of it lately. Fi I hope your dad is on the mend, and sorry to hear about the cat. Emmabemma sorry to hear about your dh troubles. Momino you have my sympathy re the chicken pox. Your dd2 sounds like my ds1. I couldn't wait to send him back to nursery! Hopefully H won't get it. Jael you have every right to be upset. Hope your dd is better now.

I had a very tiring weekend. An old friend of mine and her dh came to stay. They were great with the dc, but their marriage is on the rocks and they kept sniping at each other all the time! Ds1 shared our bed and even though it's a kingsized dh and I spent most of the night balancing on the edge of the bed

Ds2 sometimes sleeps through, sometimes he doesn't. At the moment it's getting him to sleep that is the problem.

I couldn't believe it, the other night dh dressed ds1 for bed in mismatching pyjamas and he wouldn't let me change them. It was very stressful for me

It's funny how kids learn ways to self-soothe. My DD still has her humphrey elephant blanket which she holds, and then sucks her thumb. She doesn't suck her thumb without it and "claims" she can't calm down/sleep without H but she can if she has to. We got DS1 a Jack elephant blanket (well 2 actually) which he chews on (it's disgusting!) when he goes to sleep or needs some comfort. We still swaddle DS2 although he does find it comforting to chew his fist.

I tried to get ds1 into the comforter thing, but he wasn't having it. He only sucked his thumb for a few weeks. I think its quite cute, mind you I did suck my thumb till I was about 10! Ds2 chews on his hands but shows all signs of following in his brothers footsteps!

daizy, at the mismatching pyjama comment. I know what you're talking about! my DH has mismatched DDs' pyjamas as well.

Febes, that is a good idea about a toy library. I wonder how I could find out about one here ... spangle, how do you join?

pula, cute post about your DCs' soothers/blankets.

just winding down after a rough day with DD1&2 who are much better but still not well enough to go to nursery. dd1 is a pita. i hate to say so but she is so difficult to like - just cries/whinges constantly and I'm so sick of it. is it an age thing? those of you who have 3/4 year olds - are they this difficult? what happens when she becomes a teenages ?

Evening. I really should be in bed now.

sleeping G started to sleep through from 4 weeks but now (at about 15 wks I think... ) he is up 2 - 3 times a night. I think it's a growth spurt and also a sign he is getting hungry.

Monimo sounds like you are having a tough time of it. I find the ages of 2-4 pretty trying too, tbh. I am trying to train DD2 to stop saying "I want" all of the time as it is driving me insane. DD1 (5) is also starting to develop an attitude where she rolls her eyes at me when I am saying something she doesn't like. I can't believe she is starting to rebel at the age of 5 ! So maybe I should change to saying I find the stage 2-5 difficult...

Another (vaguely) amusing anecdote about DD2 is that the potty training went all wrong over the holiday, pooing in her pants everyday. I have been racking my brains to help persuade her to do them in the potty but nothing has been working. Then I found a re-useable sticker chart for potty training in the cupboard, suggested she would get 2 stickers for doing a poo. Immediately afterwards she announces "OK Mummy, I'll do a poo on the pot-pot", sat down and did an enormous poo on the potty. Couldn't blimmin believe it. Little Madam has been perfectly capable of doing it on the potty but had decided not to bother until she was offered 2 stickers

Morninig all

Spangle We of the same school of parenting. BLW will suit you down to the ground.

Momino Hope your CP infested offspring are feeling better soon. I bet you're exhausted.

I gave dd2 a feed at 11 last night as I woke her when I came to bed and read. Next thing I know it's 7.15 and the alarm is going off. Thank crikey for that. It still took me a lOOOOOng time to come round.

Morning even.

Ds managed to get dressed by himself this morning which made everything so much easier. Dd1 who is 18 months older did eventually, but it takes the threat of not going swimming with nursery to do hurry her up. You see if she can't dress herself.....(which has been able to do for a year but is too lazy to) then the aunties at nursery won't do it and she can't go swimming.

MominoSpangle The Children's centre has a toy library but its not my closest one. I'm not 100% sure they will let me join but my friend joined last week so I'm going this friday to check it out. You pay 10 pounds a year and then can swap everyweek, or less often. They have the toys out to try out while you are there and a catalogue with photos and ages appropriate to look through. She said there is also story sacks with book, cd, puppets, dress up things so that sounds fun. I'm going on friday so I let you know how I get on. Check on netmums but also look further afield as there might be one.

Daisy I hate it when DH puts DD in mismatching pjs. He doesn't even notice he also sometimes puts her tshirt on back to front as there are no tags on the neck. And don't get me started on when he dresses her for the day, winter clothes in summer, summer clothes in winter, things that just don't go and then he gets mad when I go and change her completely.

Jennster How old is your DS?? Well done him for dressing himself. DD still puts both legs through the same hole and then screams with frustration (21 months). My DS slept from 8.30pm-7.30am

Daisy/Febes, When I was recovering from my csection DH got DD and DS1 dressed every day- not the clothes i would choose but i had to live with it, but at least I got to choose the baby outfits . And my mum always tucks DDs tops in her skirts/trousers which i really don't like- I'm sure it's because she thinks she'll get a chill .

tummum- did you try the bottle of formula last night and did it work? My DS2 fed at 12, 3.45 and 5 last night . I am thinking of potty training DS1 in September once DD is in school and we've been on holiday. He likes to pretend to go for a wee. I think i'll get lots of rewards ready to encourage him- it's funny their obsession with stickers

morning all

went to look at a campervan last night, DH was v.keen.It was in good condition for 22yrs old and I know with new curtains/seat covers I could make it look quite funky

M is 17wks today and has been feeding almost constantly during the day for the last 3 - growth spurt?

tummum lol at the poo sticker story

febes well done on finding your wallet

momino glad your lo's are over the worst

looby- sounds like the 4 month growth spurt to me- 17 weeks is spot on.

spangle- I meant to say yesterday that it's encouraging that H has has some 2 hour naps at lunchtime- that's what i would love for DS2 and it's what they do once he starts nursery (12-2). S has been having some long naps, but late afternoon which is not great when i have to do the school run in a few weeks time.

morning all.
tummum, at the poo story.

we've run out of nappies this morning for dd2 (2yr next week) and part of me thought 'let's potty train'... but although she's sat on the toilet plenty of times she's not yet done anything. I can't be bothered yet, so she's 'borrowed' one of dd1's pull ups until i can get everyone ready to walk to the shop to get emergency nappies. I'm going to start the sticker chart today to encourage her and start in a month or 2.

Jennster, that's great DS got himself dressed. DD1 has gotten herself dressed before but has regressed. she whinges mostly that she nneeeeeeds heeelllllpp . dd2 needs help but wants to do it by herself, then gets frustrated so i have to keep a close watch.

looby, camper van sound great, I'd love one, sigh. when are you going to get it?

Pula, can you believe your dd will be starting school? are you ? mixed?

must go to put on make up to look less scary so we can get out to buy nappies. what an exciting morning!

Momino- I am a bit mixed about DD starting school- I am sure she will be fine but she has some great friends at nursery and she will have to make some new ones as no-one she knows is going to her school. I am hoping it will improve her behaviour . She is very whiney and does "fake crying" all the time when she doesn't get what she wants, and her manners have regressed, so i'm hoping all this will get better with some school discipline (they are very keen on manners). I am also worried how tired she'll get as I've also booked her in for after-school club, alternating one and two days per week. As for getting dressed herself, we have to make sure DD can do this by the time she starts school and she is pretty much there- we just haven't pushed it before.

Pula how exciting about your dd starting school. This time last year I was excited / scared / couldn't quite believe I had a child of school age. Seeing them in their little uniforms on the first day is fab and tear jerking at the same time !

Looby we used to have a camper (a VW T25) and loved it. Which sort are you looking at? We found it a great way to make sure we got out of the house at the weekend and spend some time together as a family. We replaced it with a caravan a couple of years ago, which is a bit more flexible for us but is now too small for 3DC. Can't believe I am looking fwd to going to the Caravan Show in the NEC in a few weeks time to choose our replacement !

Jenn at your DC getting themselves dressed. I must start getting DD2 to do things herself. I am not looking fwd to the winter when I have to put tights on DD1. I hate tights.

Monimo have fun nappy buying

I'm off for a coffee morning with some local mums down the pub. Must go brush my hair and, maybe, put some slap on. I did want to give G a bath beforehand but he has zonked out on the lounge rug, so I am letting him sleep. Pula he took the bottle of formula no problems, which was a relief because I had terrible trouble with DD2 getting her off the boob and anticipated similar angst. My plan is to give him formula for the last feed of the night to help him sleep through. Here's hoping... I have to admit I did feel sad giving him the bottle as I am proud that I have managed to feed him myself up to now.

Pula my DD1 has just started the fake crying malarky. It's sooooooo annoying isn't it !

tummum we're looking at a vw T25!
M has a bottle of formula at 6.30-7 each night followed by a bf - she usually falls asleep on me mid-feed. Most nights she sleeps 8 -5am

just been looking at ways I can jazz up camper if we bought it (has a very beige interior) found some fab cow print seat covers that I know DH will hate not like
might make it a condition of buying it that I get to choose/change interior

tummum how did you find sleeping in the T25 with a baby?

Didn't mean to sound funny yesterday with my thumb sucking and blankie sucking comments, I guess I probably am worrying about nothing, I guess in my mind I'm thinking with DD and her dummy, it was easy for us to get rid off if you get me, she went to bed at night with it would suck it until she fell to sleep and that was it, so we just took it away, and she was only 9 months when we took it away, she didn't even notice it had gone. I'm just worrying, if he gets really attached to this blankie, will he want to take it everywhere etc...and I don't want him to suck his thumb till he's 12 like me, I should just shut up now shouldn't I. I think I'm letting tiny things bother me. I've got so much going on. I've got no-one to talk to. I feel really alone, I just feel yuck, so I think I'm finding things to worry about, but I am genuinely concerned at the same time if you get me...my mom still hasn't contacted me...i'll go now I think, I'm just blabbering.

Jael- I was really pleased when DD sucked her thumb as it was something she could control and fell asleep nicely. But like you, I worry how long it will go on, and her thumb is already affected by the sucking, and we do have to take blankie's everywhere. But she does only suck it when holding her blankie so its not like she sucks it all the time. An ex-boyfriend of mine still sucked his thumb regularly when in his twenties (it drove me mad)! And a friend of mine still has a bit of her blankie and confesses she still has a hold and a thumb suck now and again.

jael As someone who travels a lot I've found the dcs attachment to their stuffed toys really useful. They're banned from dragging it around in the daytime though, because of various incidents of them being left behind and us having to phone around to find them. So the toys stay at home unless travelling or ill.

looby Your campervan sounds fun. Good idea with the redecorating.

tummum I'm excited about the caravan show too, but not sure if we'll make it because we wont be in B'ham anymore by then Last year I missed it because I was feeling v. morning/noon/afternoon/evening sick. So would really really love to go this year to have a nose at all those lovely new caravans.

Our poor hens were being chased around by 4dcs the day before yesterday and now we've noticed one of them is limping badly. It's getting worse too. We don't really want to take a chicken to the vet. So not sure what to do if it doesn't get better.

We've got a friend of dd1 coming around this afternoon, so got to do some tidying before then.

My SIL just discovered that the person in the call centre has booked her and her family onto the wrong flight. She asked to go to menorca' and they sent her to majorca. They're leaving tomorrow too. What a nightmare for her.

Oh and yesterday I discovered my old card (bit like our lo's red book). At 27 weeks my mum was advised to put 1 sppn of flour and 1 spoonful of sugar in my milk . Can you imagine anyone doing that now! I seem to have survived and stayed healthy though.

Oh, forgot to say thank you for suggesting to get in touch with the LEA (sorry I've forgotten who it was). Will definitely do that today or tomorrow. I hand't thought of that myself at all.

Hi all .

Nothing really to report here .

Jael hope you're ok - you sound v sad and for what it's worth, I think your mum was out of order. It's a shame your aunt didn't think to contact you but I guess she was just obeying instructions. We're all here for you

Pula / Loobie is 4 months a well known growth spurt then? B had the biggest amount of milk he's ever had yesterday, then woke up at 5.30am hungry (after sleeping 6pm - c6.30am for quite a few weeks).

Momi glad the cp is receeding, and hope the Momino household can start to return to normal. Are there any signs of H getting it .

Belgian 2 weeks . Wow you will be busy!

Who was it who had rubbish daytime sleepers (Pula / Febes / Spangle ?? Sorry - shoddy mummy memory). Can I join your club? Am a leetle bit fed up of having a very tired boy who refuses to sleep during the day. So have taken to having at least two long walks a day (am getting in my 10,000 steps on my pedometer though) to get him to sleep. Thankfully, he goes at night like a dream so as everyone in rl says I should be grateful I guess.

Tummum was it you who has the ingredible moving baby? B just learnt to roll front to back this week but he is sooo strong. DD was so lazy - she did this for the first time at 8 months - so am awaiting shuffling quite soon. He can push himself really far up and jiggle his belly when on his front. V funny to watch.

It is absolutely pi$$ing it down here. That wasn't on this morning's weather forecast. And I've left my waterproof in the car which dh has at work. Sigh.

Ohh, went out last night with friends. HAd a lovely evening, nice food and a couple of beers. Have got this Saturday all to myself too shopping whilst dh has both kids on his own all day for the first time......