May '09 Fine and DANDY vive la difference! 3 months on and our babies and lives are changing.

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Well Dandy!!!!!!! Just for you after an annoying night

Grumpy
That
is
quite
enough...
of your fancy talk, young lady!

All, thanks for the advice on growth spurts and night waking. I'm much reassured.

grumpy all you need are some goats and a grapevine (natch ) and you could be completely self sufficient and therefore the ultimate earth mother!!!
p.s if you do get a grapevine can I put my name down for a crate of Chateau de Grumpy?

grumpy i'm and oh and ! so watchya making with all your garden bounty?

won't bother with the emoticons, Grumpy - I echo spangle's post.

Sorry ladies.

Just eating a pistachio Magnum , having eaten pasta with tomatoes & courgettes and have a ratatouille on the go for tomorrow.

Funnily enough Sophietom, I was discussing goat-keeping at the school gate today. There is a market nearby on 29th of every month where one can obtain goats, pigs, chickens, donkeys and suchforth.

And I do have a weedy little grapevine with a few grapes on it - near the fig tree. Perhaps next year it will yield enough to make chateau de cats piss or somesuch!

Reereereereereebeeeeee Growth Spurts? S appears to have had about 4. She feeds ravenously of an evening. However, she's only woken maybe once during the night and that at maybe 5am so I wonder if she's tanking up to get a good kip in?

Momi I can see you being a prom queen . You would have had a proper prom and all too!

spangle still at the H-Bear being nearly 22 weeks.

Fibytheseaincanadiabeforetoomuchlonger are you still reading up obsessively? I did about this area before coming here!

Evening all. Sorry I have not been on for a while but all has been chaotic in the Tumm household this week. The best news of all from the week has been that we went to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon this morning to see G's backward facing foot, and basically it is all fine. I have to do some physio on him every day and he may need to wear a cast for a while, but it's all fixable which is a big relief

Sorry, no name checking for me as I am working most nights on my business plan in time with a meeting with Business Link on Monday and a meeting with my potential supplier (keep your fingers crossed) on Tuesday. I do have to say, however, of grumpy. Harumph !

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

tummum that's good news, you must have been so concerned. And I will cross everything for you on Tuesday! xx

grumpy yes reading obsessively, googling and posting on MN and britishexpats.com. i've now got 4 nova scotians willing to answer my inane questions 3 of which emigrated from uk and one of them has even given me their phone number! it's a complicated business though both in the qualifying in points and occupation.. then the application forms.. police checks.. medicals.. yadayadayada.. we're planning our 4wk reccie. after which we'll know whereabouts we want to settle and go from there. depending on the emigration category you apply with it can take 6months to 36months to be given the go ahead!!! Nova Scotia is on the closest side of canada to uk and about the size of ireland or there abouts.

tummum just seen your post.. what a relief for you all. Great news good luck with the business too!

There's a new photo album on my FB of the house and some photos of S & DD2 (DD1 declined to be photographed). They're crappy photos, I will take some photos of the tart's boudoir room tomorrow.

hi all.
watching Blackadder on bbc1. need a good laugh. just feeling so down this week. hormones? don't know. anyway it didn't help we didn't get out today at all so by the end of the day I had 3 little girls who had lots of unspent energy and me very frustrated.

I do need to get out more. just couldn't be bothered as I missed my shower slot this morning and didn't put on make up and rain didn't help.

anyhooooww. grumpy, love the photos. love the maison. love your life and want to swap. and I saw a pic of your dog for the 1st time. Beebee is gorgeous!

sigh. back to black adder. going to make sure i do something productive tomorrow.

tummum, am so impressed with all your efforts. where do you find all your energy and drive? all best wishes to you.

Evening all,

We are off on our hols tomorrow and i'm not taking my laptop so i doubt i will be on MN or FB til the following saturday! not sure i will cope! I hope the weather will be ok, but it's nice just to get away and to have DH with us all the time.

Grumpy - votre chateau est magnifique! I should really be better at french as i worked in luxembourg for 5 months and also had lots of french friends, but i am lazy, and if i could get away with english i would! I understand a lot more than i can say

Lots to catch up on!

Pula - have a great time. Good luck with MN & FB cold turkey!

Momino - I'm sure I've been a bit hormonal this week. I keep expecting to get my first period as a result but nothing so far.

Tummum - good to hear from you and ad you got some reassurance on G's foot.

Sophietom - I got one of those weaning letters and sachets too. I've "filed" it!

Grumpy - sounds wonderful! You must have quite a bit of garden area to have all those trees! Hope the leak gets sorted.

I braved Mothercare World today. Got O a bumbo! I know they have mixed reviews but he seemed to like it albeit in a bit of a stunned way!

Grumpy - Vous etes une vache tres tres tres lucky. 'Dwi ddim yn o gwbl. Oops, le gallois is back again.

tummum - that's good news, you must all be very relieved.

pula - have a great holiday.

Crap afternoon - our washing machine has packed up. Man coming tomorrow to have a look at it, hopefuly it's repairable. DH and I calculated that it's probably done over 2000 washes in its life, so maybe it doesn't owe us much. Pain in the rearend though, both girls in cloth nappies, and I was trying to wash some of my slings to sell. Grrr.

Devilchild DD1 was on fine form at bedtime, sigh.

Am treeeeeees re chez grumpy et aussi les maisons grandes en nova scotia. Sheesh. What are we doing in all our titchy abodes over here?

Pula - lovely dream and then the bit about ds2. Bless!

FFS. Dp is ignoring me for the 2nd night in a row. This is becoming a bit of a habit, he is getting grumpier and ruder, and I am seriously wondering whether getting married next month is actually a good idea. He called me a really horrid name the other day and I burst into tears and he just walked off. He did apologise later, but still. He is always so impatient with me and M - probably why he forgot the nappy the other day. Am getting fed up with it. If I ask him what the matter is I just get 'nothing, you're the one that's in a mood.' I tried to start loads of conversations throughout dinner and all I got was monosyllabic answers. Am a bit miserable. Good for the old PND, eh. Am going to go and finish the ironing and then may move M into the spare room tonight with me after I've fed her. Don't want the cold shoulder in bed again tonight. Wish I knew what I've done wrong Night night all x

flippineck- bummer about the washing machine- with two LOs its not something you can manage without for long.

I'm getting my MN and FB fix tonight before my week of cold turkey! Best not stay up too late though. DS2 keeps waking for multiple feeds in the night- last night it was 12, 3.15, 4.40 and 6.05 . Didn't get any sleep before the midnight feed and not much after 4.40 when he ended up in bed with me nuzzling my neck.

sausage - that sounds really hard, no advice I'm sorry, just wishes for you for an improved situation soon.

Yep, real pain about the washing machine, I'm hoping that it's something simple, and cheap ish to fix. How long are washing machines expected to last for?

sausage- sorry to hear your DP is grumpy and moody- do you think it could be wedding nerves? I know it's hard to have a heart to heart when he's not talking, but hope you can find out what's bothering him.

flippin, sorry for the washing machine. it happened to us right before baby was born but the engineer fixed it. hope yours is fixed.

sausage, i do feel for you. PND is no fun and your DP is being so incredibly unreasonable. you really need to talk. esp before the wedding.

ses and others feeling 'hormonal'... I've noticed there is a full moon, could that also be affecting us?

pula, hope you have a good week holiday.

ok off to bed now. xx

Good evening every one!!

Well, we weren't off line for half as long as I expected. The BT homehub arrived today to our big surprise.

I am absolutely loving our cottage. It's so beautiful and gorgeous. Even though it's smaller than our old house I like it here much better! Most of the boxes are unpacked. The dcs have settled in and the cat is still being locked in, but taking it well. We've managed to sort the school and on Mon the dcs will start. I'm looking forward to get the house sorted in piece and quiet.

flippin The horror . No washing machine. I hope it gets fixed soon.

Grumpy of your new French life. Kent just doesn't have the same ring to it Also like your new names for Fi, they make me

fi How exciting! It sounds like it's all going to become a reality before you know it. I agree with llare: go for it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you dont.

reebee sounds like a growth spurt. Just keep feeding, your supply will catch up and one of these days you'll wake up feeling full again.

growth spurts I haven't really noticed C feeding that much more than usual but the other day I woke up and picked up C and it was like she suddenly seemed bigger. Really odd. Maybe she had an overnight growth spurt?

crying It's still guess work, but at the same time I tend to have an idea what it can be, e.g. if it's about 2h since she woke then usually it means nap time.

momi It was you wasn't it who did the huge cheese order? I did that once with rainbow trout

bfp's Funnily enough I was just thinking this week that I got mine about now. I joined the thread in Feb or so though, so I missed the early, scary, sicky bit. I wish I had been there though.

I also got blanked by a family member for getting pregnant without being married. It was my MIL when preg with ds. She came round after his birth and now everything is even better due to that ring on my finger

Right, I think I've caught up now. Better go as DH is threatening to bar MN on our new internet connection

Oops I see I forgot to say to tummum that I'm glad to hear that it's good news about G's foot.

I'm not hormonal, but also had strange dreams. There must be something in the air My strange dream is that I left C somewhere (in a shop I think) for a min while I went to look for something and when I came back the shop had changed it's lay out and I couldn't find C and everyone I asked didn't know anything about a baby being left. I was so glad to wake up!

Night night everyone!

Hi Belgian, good to see you. what a funny dream!

just an anectdote. today I felt really dowdy and down. I also felt like I was useless, not getting anything done, house a mess, didn't get out with the DD's etc. etc. but the thing that put everything into perspective was dd2 saying at the end of the day, 'mummy, you look pretty'. and dd1 throwing her arms around me saying 'i love you mummy, you're my best friend.' and I shouted at them all day... how could they still feel affectionate? bless them, children are gold.

Momino- I really hate this wet weather as it really makes it hard to get out with the DCs and they get so fed up in the house all the time (well mine do anyway). I had a staying in day with the DCs today and felt very when my MIL let herself in (as the door was on the latch) at around 3.30pm, DD and DS1 were running riot with toys all over the floor and still in their pyjamas . Luckily DS2 and I were dressed and i wasn't screaming at any of them. My DD sounds like yours. She likes pretending to write, so puts together strings of letters which don't make any sense. Yesterday she said "mummy can you tell what this says". I snapped back "no" as i was moody with her as her behaviour is atrocious atm. And she said "it says 'i love you mummy'. I felt so bad .

pula i feel bad too when i've been in similar situations with ds. Have a wonderful holiday.. you're prob already on your way so won't be reading this until you get back..

sausage how ru? any better with dh?

grumpy votre maison c'est tres jolie how's the leaky roof?

belgian hiya lovely to have you back.. great to know you're settling in and that dc's are sorted for school on monday too.

flippin is the washing machine for the scrap heap? what a nightmare!

momino how's the cheese mountain? i've had a few days like yours.. thursday and yesterday.. despite actually doing quite a lot even though i felt i wasn't iyswim. feeling bit brighter today though. i agree dc's are just pure gold

off to make lunch.. back soon to update you all on our goings on!

pula, yer on your way but i actually think that is a lovely story from your DD. try not to feel badly. actually, I was glad to hear your LOs still in pj's because we're often like that and it makes me feel like we're actually 'normal'.

fi, whatcha doing today?

york Family Raceday tomorrow, who was asking about this? reebee? reggiee? anyone else? I've found out about it and it sounds like a fun day out - lots of ponies, horses for the girls to look at, family friendly things happening including appearances by Peppa Pig and George (not sure who is george). if the weather is nice, we're going to go with a picnic.

today, it's a bit rainy. I went running with the dog on the racecourse and my hip is really acting up. It started hurting from this last pregnancy when my ligaments were a bit loose. Does anyone have aches and pains from pregnancy that haven't gone away? guess it's a good excuse for me not to exercise...

back on later. hope you're all well.