October 2007- These Little Piggies started throwing tantrums

[FloriaTosca]

The lastest thread for the fabulous women who were due their babies in the October of the Chinese year of the pig and who now have terrible tantrums and delightful cuddles in equal measure from their almost 2 year olds. New and old members welcome to drop in for a chat anytime....

Ooohh, ladies are back, YAY!!

Dal ? can?t wait for you to be a baby bore, looking forward to it 

NC ? good news about the scan (if you can call it that?) at least you don?t have to go in again. Hope you manage to get yourself sorted soon, I honestly don?t know how you can cope with studying aswell as two children to look after, I admire the fact that you are. 

FT ? Hope Alex gets sorted in his sleep soon, Ben wakes at least once a night and either shouts or suddenly appears at the side of my bed but I put him back to bed without a word and he goes straight back off luckily. I?m sure he is sleep walking as he lets me pick him up without a murmur, he puts his head on my shoulder and is soon snoring again. 
Cute little story about the parrot they are at a great age at the moment aren?t they, full of new words and little sayings, even the ones you don?t want them to say 

WWAJC ? Hope you get to see the CAB soon and can manage to get through Christmas. Ben is wanting yoghurts all the time too, I let him have two a day, otherwise, he would be living on them too.

Inzi ? Glad you had a fab holiday, and can understand the holiday blues, but at least you have Christmas to look forward to now. I am beyond excited this year, I am so looking forward to it and want to put my tree up now, but DH said I have to wait till next weekend at the earliest, so will put the fake one up in the playroom, and get a real one the weekend after 

Strawberrylace ? don?t worry about feeling like you have nothing to say, I feel like that all the time too, I just think its important that we all keep touch, even if its only once a week

WELL DONE on the weight loss, that is a great achievement. Hope you enjoyed your chocolate, I have been a right little piggy the past two weeks, can?t seem to stop eating crap. I have put back on the weight that I lost for that black tie do, it really annoys me that I have undone all the hard work, but on the other hand I can?t stop myself eating the bad stuff

BabyBlue3 ? Welcome, its always good to see new faces and we are a really friendly bunch so please drop in whenever you like for a moan or to tell a nice story. I have two boys Sam who is 4 and a half and Ben who was 2 in Oct.

Ben?s favourite pastime at the moment, when we are out at the shops is to run up behind people and shout beep beep at them to get them to move out of the way. Then when they turn round to look at them he gives them such a big cheeky smile

He also sits in the car and shouts ?mummy go faster? or ?daddy go faster? and also asks for his favourite song which is Lilly Allens ?Not Fair? all the time, he and Sam love it. I?m trying to find some different songs that they like before Sam starts asking questions about giving head and wet patches They are quite liking Mika at the moment.
There are no signs of big double teeth with Ben yet and no terrible two?s either, he is such a laid back sweet natured and loving boy I feel incredibly lucky. He also gives the best cuddles and asks for them all the time. It?s a pleasure to take him out as he doesn?t run away, holds my hand when asked and doesn?t mess with stuff on the shelves if told no once. He also still has his sleep in the day sometimes as little as only 20 mins, but others times up to 3 hours and still sleeps at night.

Sorry if I am sounding smug, but he really is an angel

Right I think I am all typed out now. Hope I haven?t missed out anything major.

Have a good weekend everyone xx

I guess I will tell you a little about myself, and hopefully I will get toknow you all as well. I'm hoping to be here for the long haul!! Well... I am 37 years old, married, and have 4 DCs (DD1 is 11.5, DS1 is 10, DD2 is 2, and DS2 is 4 months). My monkeys children keep me very busy, and my household is usually abnoxiously loud filled with laughter . I have hopefully convinced DH to go for the snip, as I am getting too old for more, and have already been through an obviously failed tube tying 2 children ago! I live in Canada. I will be on mat leave until September 2010, and then who knows.

Right now... DD2 is going through the terrible twos and its driving me crazy! LOL. She is very head-strong and will throw a tantrum if she doesn't get her way. She used to be a sweet child!! LOL. DS2 is now a perfect angel (after 2 months of being colicky).

Hi everyone, just a flying visit again I'm afraid, have been reading, just never get time to post!
Hi Babyblue-I've got 2 DDs 9 and 2, wow at having another one after these lot, don't know how you manage! What you on maternity leave from?

I text Alice this morning to let her know we're thinking of her-thats if I've got the right number

Inzi-you're looking fantastic, stories of jane are so cute Glad you had a good holiday.

LLL-you don't sounds smug, its great that Bens a good little boy, fingers crossed he doesn't suddenly get an attack of the terrible twos.

FT-from FB-great news about Alex sleeping more, hope it continues.

Sorry to all I've missed, really need to get on with college work, Shannon is in front of Dora again

oooh anyone wanting a bargain have a look at this thread

here

I got a dora bumper DVD set for £2.41, received it and all seems fine so definately worth doing even if you don't have quidco or top cash back.

Hi All
Yet another flying visit...blardy hall is still not finished (though the floor is down at last [relieved emoticon])so whenever Alex napping I have door frames and doors to paint ...so much for my everything must be done before advent ultimatum

Babyblue; hello and welcome...my goodness you must have your hands full. Commisserations on the unsucessful tl but congratulations on your DD and your new baby boy it must have been a lovely surprise (after the initial shock ) I hope you settle in a feel at home with us very soon. I was due on Oct 5th 07 but they induced me and Alex is actually a Sept boy but I wasn't going to jump ship for 4 days.

LLLbut long may Bens angelic habits last, what a joy to go out with and be around..

NC I hope all the assignments are done and you are feeling well again. Thanks for the congrats on Alexs' sleep through...he hasnt done it again but he hasn't had any of the recent repertoire of appalling nights(20 returns to bed in 90mins/7 bfs a night/90mins screaming at 2am etc)either ...I might even start to look human again soon with only 2 wake ups for bf and a 6/6.30 start

strawberry;wow,wow,wow at your weight loss..mine is yoyoing (2on - 3off - maintain) but at least the general trend is down just very, very slow

crikey look at the time...need to get dog food in or mut will starve...back later I hope...3 doors done... 6 to go...

morning ladies.
Was up way too early this morning, Rich stayed last night and shannon woke as he was leaving cue 30 minutes of shouting for 'my Daddy' 'Wheres my daddy gone' 'I can't find my Daddy anywhere' 'My daddy not gone to work, my daddy gone to nursery' 'Leonie not going to school, Leonie going to work' The las two are a new game where you turns everything round, I say that Shannons a monkey and she says, no, mummy a monkey, shannon a lion etc

Was very cute this morning but very annoying so early, also not got hardly any milk, so can only have one coffee, not good with a full day of confusion college ahead of me. Assignments are very intense and should take weeks to do, wish I was one of them people where it just flowed from me, having to insert references and stuff is new to me too.

Anyway off to get ready for the day, hope everyone is well.

Am so very tired today... DS2 has gone from sleeping through the night to waking at least 3 times. Then, he wont nap in the daytime either! Sigh... I have been lucky in the sense that Sofia (DD2) has been taking her afternoon naps without a fuss again. For the past couple of months, she has been SCREAMING herself to sleep. Not sure why, but I tried everything to stop it. Finally, just resigned myself to the fact that after 5 minutes of screaming, she usually went to sleep and then I would have 3 hours of peace. Of course, the baby NEVER sleeps when she sleeps, so its not like I get any time to myself.

strawberry Congrats on your weight loss! Am completely !! I have lost my baby weight from DS2, and am now working on the 30lbs I had left from Sofia. Having 2 kids back to back is a killer on the figure!! LOL. As of this morning, 21lbs to go! Am determined to lose it by the time I go back to work in September.

work I normally work full time. My DH and I both do shift work, so it will be a challenge when I start back. That is why I am not sure what I am going to do. I am thinking of doing a job-share (which means part time work - 2 people share one position). Either that, or I find a nanny. A home daycare would cost me $1500.00 a month (which is more than half my pay), and would not really work with our hours anyway. Would love to be a SAHM, but financially I can't see that working either. Sigh...

HA! So much for being back later!

Babyblue;sympathy on the lack of sleep...I only have Alex but he has only ever slept through 4 times and he has (almost) stopped napping too ...I don't know how those of you with multiples cope. Well done on the weight loss so far I'm sure you will lose the remainder in no time at all. I also sympathise on the child care problem...I teach part time from home, you would think it would be easy to arrange child care but it is mainly evenings so nursery wouldn't suit, Dh often works abroad so isn't always home and grandparents with health issues are often unreliable ...we have just muddled through so far as I don't earn enough to afford a nanny

NC;[eek emoticon] to the assignments ... the most positive thing I can think of to say is that with so many to do you should get used to the technique in no time. Good on you for hanging on in there despite feeling so overwhelmed. Lol at Shannons contradictory conversations, what a bright spark she is...Alexs' only form of contradiction is to scream "no!" at an earsplitting pitch (typical masculine reasoning). Hope you got to get more caffine later in the day

Inzi; your holiday sounds fabulous. How wonderful that Jane enjoyed it so much.Lol at her fickleness with all her foreign boyfriends (thats the way to do it Jane,you start as you mean to go on my girl)Good luck with all the Christmas shopping...I'm in the same boat but have all this blooming door painting to do too![FT runs round shouting 'don't panic!' a la Dads Army]

Good days to all!

Hello!

So I am behind as usual! We had the Christmas Concert at school which took over my life for a bit there. Went very well though. Am stupid tired - Dareh not sleeping again. Now he can get out of bed we find him sleeping all over the house and often he comes to get me up for his boo boo more as he calls it. Am gently trying to wind down - beein trying to distract in the day and keep it for first thing and last thing. So far it has been fine and he hasn't been really upset or anything so we shall see how it goes. Don't want to force him but I am really tired from feeding him in the night so would like to move towards stopping.

Hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for Christmas! What is everyone getting for their LO's? We ordered Dareh a puppet theatre and some puppets. Might get him some books too and that will be his lot - still on a tight budget here. Am excited about the puppet theatre though - think that will be lots of fun.

Welcome babyblue!

Hope everyone is well - I am going to eat some crumpets now!

Evening ladies,

Inzi - Ahh, maybe Jane and Dylan can do a twinkle twinkle duet .

Glad you're getting christmas 'off' this year, it'll be nice nad relaxing . I was all up for doing my own christmas when we had Dylan and he was 8 weeks old but it was a major stress and as much as I liked being the hostess I have to admit it's a lot less stressful to pop down the road to mils and help her prepare her dinner and not have all the responsibility! We're going there this year but will help out as much as poss as she's lovely and I don't want her run off her feet!

Sorry to hear your grandads health has deteriorated (sp?), as you say, best to make sure he has a lovely christmas and you have plenty of happy times to remember him by.

The bump isg good thanks for asking It seems to have become a lot more noticable over the last week without me realising! Lots of kicks which is good. Midwife check last week said I was measuring a week smaller than I am but they said the same at my 20wk scan, think it'll be another little one like Dylan . Got a follow up scan on wed to check the kidneys, fingers crossed.

Hey choc, sorry you're so tired lately, night feeding sure must take it's toll, especially when you've been doing it so long.

Hope the weaning Dareh off his boo boo goes easily and relitavely painlessly for both of you. I have to say you have done absolutely brilliantly at breastfeeding him considering the struggle you had in the begining, you're made of strong stuff, well done

Puppet theatre sounds great, what a good idea! We're getting Dylan a few different things but not going mad, he's got a pirate ship thingy that was on offer in coop, a new book for bedtime - monkey puzzle something or other oh and some litle toy cars, he's obsessed with them! Just bits and pieces really.

I'm not so panicked about my xmas shopping now as i have made a sizable dent in it! Thank god. Why is it though that every year I always see loads of stuff for one person and there's always one person who I can't find anything for? Why?!!!

WWAJC - How's the nap dropping going? We're kinda stuck between a morning and an afternoon nap though it seems to be afternoon most days. Only trouble is, if I want to go out in the aft he might eventually fall asleep in his buggy for 30 mins to an hour but at home he naps for about 2 hrs! This means if I do go out instead of letting him nap at home he's grumpy and tired at tea time, such a difficult balance!

LLL - That's great Ben's so laid back and well behaved. I would love to say Dylan's the same except he has a right temper when he wants! Having said that he is very well behaved most of the time so that makes up for it, he's just so unconsolable when he gets worked up

Babyblue - Wow, you've got your hands full, I admire you, you must be a supermum. I get frazzled with just one! I have some relatives that live in Canada, have always wanted to visit as it sounds amazing, maybe one day...

Sorry you're so tired at the moment, it's so hard when they settle in to a sleeping pattern then it changes.

Hope you manage to come to an arrangement with work that you're happy with when it comes the time to go back...

NC - How you feeling? How's the college work going? Hope you have a nice relaxing christmas after the hectic few months you've had.

Floria - Hows the hall coming on? We need to do ours, have patches of paint samples all over it so now it just looks scruffy!

You're doing so well with the weight loss, it's hard to keep the motivation up long term and you're managing that so just hang on in there

Not much else going on here, just getting ready for xmas. Been to my nephews 3rd birthday party today so am stuffed full of buffet food

Got another stupid parcel from my horrid parents the other day, just a load of random stuff and a ridiculous card supposedly for Dylan but not anything I'd want him to read. My mother is sick in the head. I'm choosing to ignore ignore ignore. It does upset me though but thats what she wants so am trying to forget about it!

Well, i'm just about pooped now so will say night to all. Hi to anyone i've missed x

Hi all!!

Sorry I've been absent for the past few months, life has been hectic but not as bad as I thought it was going to be!!

Toby is now 22 weeks -where did that go??- and a fab, giggly little man. He sleeps 6.30ish pm- 6/7am so I really can't complain. He's on 2 meals a day and has been since about 19 weeks as he was having 9oz bottles after 9oz bottles and still not happy. He took to it like a duck to water and we haven't looked back. Strange how How Hen was 27/8/9 weeks before he was even interested...

Don't know how much he weighs, haven't had him done since he was 12 weeks due to not being able to fit sleeps and scholl runs around the small time you can go and get them weighed. Also he's growing so I know he's okay!

Henry is also fab and turining into a force to be reckoned with! We are now experts in avoidance tactics to put him off going into full meltdowns. He likes to help so we ask him to help us do things a lot, it takes more time but it's worth it as I think we'd spend the time calming him down anyway.

Ollie and he now play brilliantly -last night they were playing in the playroom whilst dh and I tidied the shit pit study and they pretended they were going to sleep and were covering each other with the blankets and shouting 'night night!!!!'

They do argue but I now leave them to sort it out anmonst themselves as I found I was beginning to be a referee between them. If there's isn't any blood, limbs falling off or cries of iminent (sp?) peril I leave them to it.

We've had their rooms decorated and carpeted and they look lovely, I really feel they have their own spaces now. This is the first time we've ever decorated for any of them so it's lovely!! Ollie even hugged his bed and told me how much he loved it which just shows you how much he likes it!!

I hope all are well, I'll read a bit but I don't think I'll catch up the time I've been away xxx

take care
xxx

babyblue3 hello!!

I am mum to 3, ds1 Oliver, 5.9. ds 2, Henry, 2.1 and ds 3 Tobias, 22 weeks. I was a regular 'till I had ds 3.

Hello all How is everyones' Christmas preparations going? We managed to get the tree up, house decorated and some shopping done this weekend. I may try to go out with the 2 babies again this week, but its soo tiring! LOL. I dont know... maybe when I had the first 2 DCs I had more energy to drag them all over the place. Now that I am lazy older, I just dont have the same drive to drag these 2 around with me. Maybe its terrible twos, but Sofia is a handful out shopping. She will only stay willingly in the stroller for a couple of hours, then its time for the bribery to start. Right now, a nice bag of popcorn will buy me another hour (and thats only if the baby is asleep or not fussing). Hard to get into the shopping spirit when its so much work just to get out of the house. On the flipside, the older 2DCs get on my nerves while shopping as well! If they are not complaining about being bored, then they are bickering with one another! Cant win!

Muppetgirl... can so sympathise with the meltdowns! Sofia is a master at them! We are not that adept at the avoidance thing, but can sometimes distract her mid-meltdown enough to get us out of the store we are in, without too much commotion! LOL

hello muppet - nice to see you and I can't believe Tobias is 22 weeks already either....

hello to everyone else as well. I have a cold back again so am feeling tired and sorry for myself. Did loads with DS today as it's my day off, but feel I've done to much and exhausted myself now. So am going to go to bed early, and may even try to work from home tomorrow - last year I got a cold about this time of year, and was out of action till mid Jan with one thing and another!

I hope you are all ok. will be back later

LLL - at Ben shouting beep beep at people. Anya just runs into them, expecting them to get out of the way.

NC - at "Shannon's a lion" - don't you love toddler brains?!

babyblue - hope ds2 is sleeping better soon and that you manage to catch up with your sleep a bit. Impressed you've already decorated your house and done the tree! We'll do ours nearer to Christmas day. Don't blame you struggling with the shopping - Anya's only just at the stage where she will tolerate shops for any length of time. I do most of my stuff online.

Inzi - well done on getting most of your Christmas shopping done. about your grandad - I really hope you have a wonderful, memorable Christmas despite that.

Chocstar - we have got Anya a bed as her main present (going up Christmas Eve probably), plus a dressing gown and slippers, and a Thomas the Tank Engine train set. Not a huge amount but she will get loads of stuff from other people (esp grandparents). Puppet theatre sounds a lovely idea.

Dal - good for you ignoring your parents - hard I know but it must be the right thing.

Muppet - helllloooooo! 22 weeks already Toby sounds wonderful - in fact all your boys seem such a great family.

Strawberry - hope your cold is better soon and that it doesn't last until January!

Anya's cute thing of the day - we were in the Trafford Centre and she charged down one of the malls then stopped dead, threw her arms in the air and yelled "Oooooohhhhhh wwwwwwowwwwwww!!!!" at the top of her voice. She then did a little excited dance and ran into the Disney Store.

We're paying the price tonight for me letting Anya have a nap after lunch. She'd woken up early this morning and she was crying by about 1pm she was so tired, so I let her have an hour's nap. She's still awake now and bouncing (and stuffing her face with ham, which has taken over from yoghurt as the food of choice). This is the first day in over a week that I've let her sleep and she has seemed quite happy with that. (I think dh lets her nap a bit while I'm at work - she seems to be a bit more 'random' with her sleeping patterns on those evenings!)

Hi all xx

Babyblue - I know what you mean about taking the 2 out. My double buggy is very long and I feel I knock shops about when I go round them. Henry loves to get out and walk now and Tobes is fine as long as we go after breakfast!

Strawberry - am hoping this cold doesn't last as long as the one last year x

WWAJC - Hello!!!!! The boys are fab and I absolutely love being with them xxxx

Ollie + Hen 'up north' for the week this weekend to see Grandma. (She's not phoned or had any contact with me since she left with the boys 3 days after having tobes, didn't ring to see how I was with the c-section recovery so I told DH I'd had enough and he could deal with her from now on. I'll be polite when needs be but he rings every sunday - I make him!- so he's still staying in contact) so we're looking forward to a bit of a break. DH is off for 2 weeks so we'll have a a chill week with Toby and then a lovely week with all the boys just before Christmas then Christmas itself. Really looking forward to it as dh hasn't had any time off since Toby was born.

Speak soon
xx

God I can't believe how busy I've been, my head is going at hundred miles an hour, so just popping on to say hi and keep the thread alive.
Am going to try and get my SS posted tomorrow at some point inbetween college. Also decided to change Shannons nursery to a different one for various reasons so need to tell them tomorrow, the woman who runs it is well scary so not looking forward to it.

Oops there goes the microwave signal that tea is nearly ready.

Love to all xx

Done it again..sorry

Just popping in to say Hi Lovies!

We have been horribly busy but the end is nigh...the doors need another coat of paint and the skirting and architrave needs varnishing..the festive decorations are half done and I have knocked a few more pressies off the list...didnt get round to emailing tles about secret santa so at least I'm not going to dissapoint one of you by missing the post.... I dont know how any of you with multiples are coping with shopping at all Alex is a liability, he hates sitting in the trolley and screams with boredom or grabs everything in sight ... however the promise of a ride on the carousel at the Trafford Centre today gave me a whole 10 mins of peace in which to grab a couple of breifly considered pressies....he adored the carousel ride, waving and shouting "look at me Grandma!" every time we passed her .

At this precise moment we are struggling to get him to bed, he keeps asking for a drink or the toilet or my milk or..or..or... tuesday night Dh was in Germany, Alex and I ate at my Mums and left later than usual, he managed to stay awake for 25miles of motorway driving and screamed at me for 45 mins after I put him to bed ..he got out of bed every 15 seconds for the whole time! How do I know? because I was stood outside his door banging my head on the architrave, I never counted more than 15 before the door opened and I gently picked him up and put him back in bed to return to my head banging...after 45mins I finally turned on the light and told him (amazingly calmly)that I loved him very much and didn't want to smack him but that if he got out of bed again I would....[bad mummy emoticon ]...guess what?..it worked!! he screamed for another 5 mins but stayed in bed and fell asleep hiccupping. Not a reccommended technique but needs must sometimes.
The highs and lows of life with a toddler then eh?
Incidently we have finished baby sign lessons now, he has definately outgrown them andnwas becoming disruptive in class (I dearly hope this isn't something I will be saying when he starts school) Has anyone tried baby ballet for boys? It sounds challenging enough.(don't know how Dh will react to the suggestion though)
Dh now seems to have won tonights battle without resorting to threats of violence...I hhad better go and praise my conquering hero.

Oh dear Floria, I am exhausted just reading all of that. I hope Alex starts sleeping well soon. It took my niece till nearly three to start sleeping through! I hope by then Alex will too.

NC - I don't know how you are doing it all either, I feel rather lazy in comparison with only having to sort the boys out, and then that isn't too challenging because they are both so good.

My christmas shopping is all done and nearly all wrapped and the trees and decorations are up too. Pics on FB.

Yesterday was Sam's last ever day at Kindergarten at the truly fab place he has been going to for 2 and a half years. He doesn't seem at all bothered about leaving and not seeing anyone again, but I admit to fighting back the tears when I cleared all his stuff out when I dropped him off in the morning.

He had his nativity play on tuesday and he was fab, singing above everyone else, again some pics on FB :-)

Ben has started saying 'no' to everything and crossing his arms in front of him, am beating coaxing him out of it as it really winds me up

We have been having rat and mice problems at home but DH came home with vast amounts of traps and poison on Monday and apart from a mini bloodbath in the small courtyard (but no sign of ratty) all has been quiet for two days. Fingers crossed it continues.

I have another Peppa Pig cake to make today/tomorrow for my nieces 4th birthday but then that's it till March, I really couldn't do it full time

Hello to everyone else, hope all xmas preps are going well. I'm off to MiL's on xmas day so thats one less thing to worry about.

xx

Floria- Ollie did Ballet as it is compulsory for all to do for 2 years at his school. Was lovely to watch him do but he didn't really want to do it. When I asked him if he wanted to continue he said no... He now does judo and seems to love that

Ollie had his last day at school today and we went with some friends out for lunch. Toby loved all the tnsel, colours and silver things around at the mo. He even slept a little in the pram so I could have my lunch!
Dh is driving Ollie + Hen up to Grandma's tomorrow after lunch for the week and I am looking forward to a rest! Trouble is Toby is coughing at night and wakes up and is hungry -2.30-3.30am this morning had me trying to get him back to sleep with me then giving in and giving him a bottle of which he drank 8ozs and went straight back to sleep. Not sure how much rest I'll get!

LLL- I love your cakes they are so fab!

love to all
xx

Hello everyone
well, it is 5.30pm in the strawberrylace house and everyone is asleep except for me! Yes, you have read that time correctly, it's teatime, and both DS and DH are snoring on the sofa!
DH has an ear infection, so he's feeling sorry for himself - and even though I was ill with my cold I had to cook for us, but he is just snoring having been at home all day. Men.
DS wouldn't go to sleep until past 10pm last night - so understanding what you mean in your post Floria - but was up at 6am, and spent all day playing with friends and doing Xmas craft, which is why he's so tired. Now I will have to cook tea & wake them both up and they will be grumpy. Grrr
At least DS is no problem to take shopping - worryingly he can spot anything Tescos a mile off - I hope it lasts as it makes my life so much easier! I am keeping my fingers crossed...
Off to wake the grumpy bums now - hope you are all ok!

Muppet - your run up to Christmas sounds lovely - really hope you have a relaxing time with dh and Toby this week.

NC - not surprised your head is busy - are you getting much time to chill over Christmas? How did it go with the scary nursery woman?

FT - you must be relieved that the decorating is nearly finished - bet it looks amazing! Shopping with lo's is such hard work isn't it? At least Anya will sit in a supermarket trolley for a few minutes at a time now - but only if she's allowed to drop put the food in the trolley behind her. Sorry but at Alex hiccupping to sleep - I'm amazed at your patience.

LLL - ((hugs)) at Sam leaving his kindergarten - all grown up now then? Nativity play sounds lovely, I will check out pics later.

Strawberry - hope your dh's infection clears up soon (for your sake!)

I've nearly finished all my Christmas shopping (feeling quite smug - I'm not usually this organised!) Not put the tree up yet though - might broach the subject with dh this weekend but he likes it to go up for as short a time as possible (bah humbug).

Anya went to her first carol service this week. I took her into town and we dropped in the city centre church on the offchance that my mum was there (she's a churchwarden). She wasn't but it was a few minutes before Manchester High School for Girls carol service so we stayed as Anya loves singing, although it was a struggle to get her to understand she had to be quiet (it being a service not a concert).

So we had the pointing at the pianist when she started playing...
Anya: "ooooohhhhhh"
me: "ssshhhhh"
Anya: "ssshhhhhh, oooooooohhhhhhhhh"

Then later we had a very nice arrangement of Silent Night with violins...
Anya: "Again!!"

She decided about 10 minutes before the end that she was bored and wanted to go, but she had to put the pencils she'd been colouring with back in their case - this was during a nice, quiet, atmospheric reading.
Anya, putting first pencil in: "One....."
me: "ssshhhhhhh"
Anya in the loudest stage whisper you've ever heard: ".....two......"
me: "SSSHHHHHHHHH"
etc

Hi everyone

FT-Sorry, but I laughed a little at the threat working, its kind of good that they?re learning to understand these things plus I?ve done worse! Hope he starts sleeping soon, its horrible when you just want them to sleep so you can have some time to yourself on an evening.

LLL-LOL at Ben saying ?no? to everything, Shannon keeps making demands and saying ?NOW? at the end of it, can?t imagine where she got that from Hope your rodent problem is ok.

Muppet-hope you manage to have a lovely quiet weekend and plenty of rest.

Strawberry-hope everyone gets better in your house.

WWAJC-PMSL at Anya, she?s so funny. How?re things with you?

Well the ?ogre?woman at nursery said it was fine, I can take next week of as a holiday, I said so I won?t have to pay anything, she said no, then she said ?oh actually I mean the week after, so if you bring her in this week and then take the week after as a holiday you?ll only have to pay half price? I was like Erm no, if I have to pay half, i?d rather pay full and take her in and get some assignments done, they also want me to pick her up early as they only have a ?skeleton? staff in. Cheeky cow, they want my money but wont work for it. Anyway, after the next 2 weeks she wont be going on a Tue-but she will on a Fri because they already receive funding for that, so I?ll keep her there and see how she goes. The other nursery is the same price and provide a hot lunch, nappies, snacks etc and don?t charge if she is ill or we go on holiday, which is really good. The old nursery want you to take packing up, nappies etc and are always trying to get money out of you, it just really annoys me.
We?re meant to be putting the tree up this weekend, DD1 coming home from her Dads especially tomorrow.
Am extremely stressed about college and Christmas day-having to have all Richie?s family here, but mainly being able to get my assignments done and even though I think I?ve nearly finished one, I?ve written 7000 words when its only meant to be 3000 so going to have to cut lots of it, although some of it can go in the appendix.

Been sat waiting to watch a film since 8pm but Rich is still doing something for work, not seen him since weekend either 

Hello all,

Sorry I have been so so crap - its probably been weeks since I have been on here so haven't even begun to catch up.

I am a bit like this with keeping in touch with rl friends too - gets a bit of a long while since I have been in touch so need a good chunk of time to catch up properly therefore don't do it when I have a spare 10-15 mins or so (which I have had a lot of but not longer often recently). Then it becomes a little self perpetuating.

I have been thinking of you all often though! I am going to try and catch up a bit now (in the middle of uploading a load of family pics so that I can make a photo calendar for Christmas) so have a bit of time in front of the computer!

No exciting news from me - boys are lovely and happy and settled in new house. Work going well too. Going to ILs for Christmas which will prob be challenging as dh and his dad don't exactly get along but thats life!

If anyone wants to summarise anything monumental it would be much appreciated! In aprticular - muppet how are you getting on with 3? And Dal you must be getting pretty big now - how far along are you?

I will try my very very best to keep in touch now ladies and not leave it as long!!!