April 2008 - The one with the arrival of little sisters!

[Scorps]

Here's to PM's new little girl to come very soon, oh yes and my dd2

Denny we're doing something very similar on Saturday - am looking forward to it, but have to go to supermarket tomorrow get food in and then do some cooking to prepare. Oh, and tidy. Bah.

I did something to my neck while carrying B a couple of days ago. We were walking up to the childminder's house and I carried him while cross the road and then for a little bit going up a small hill. I guess it will ease eventually.

It's a conspiracy, I go away for a few days and EVERYONE comes back. Am starting to take this personally. Hurumph.

WELL DONE KNITTER! Am so pleased for you

Molly has been poorly all week and I have been off work with her. She was just getting over her tummy bug and last night came down with a throat/chesty cough, so no sleep for mummy again. Oh well.

Coffee. Industrial amounts of coffee - that's what you need, Ellie! Hope it doesn't last too long, I know it happens all the time, but I just hate it when they are poorly - feel so sorry for them.

R's not ill (yet?), but woke up a bit wheezy and with a stuffy nose - really hope it stays like this and not get worse. I think I'm just going to keep him warm and cosy inside today.

Date night tonight, but really I just fancy staying in and watching old movies whilst drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies...

Two problems with that:

Babysitter will be here, so not quite the romantic evening you'd imagine, and I don't actually have mulled wine or plan to make any. Oh, and I'm trying to stay off wine and sweets for the moment, but that's smaller details.

Will have to think of something nice to do, it's been ages since we've been here to do date night. And since I'm working on Operation Have Another Monster, I can't risk cold relations.

Am in rainy Cornwall carpark waiting for dh to bring me back my meatball sub

sal, for our date night we are goin to all you can eat night at local fabby Chinese and then watching Christmas carol in cinema . nice and xmassy!

Ooh Scorps, that sounds brilliant! Hmm, I might copy you if I may - off to search for what's on at cinema tonight! Could do with a nice beef in black bean sauce now..

Scorp, you sound so much happier lately. (Not being patronising, I'm honestly so happy to hear you back to your own self.) Are you doing regular date nights now or as and when?

(Ellie, you might notice I'm obsessed with food ever since I've told you I'll be good )

Date night, what's that?

Sounds lovely...I've never really been able to do that with DH cos he had DSD obviously when I got together with him (not that I'd wish otherwise) but sometimes I think a little wistfully about the fact that it will be about another 100 million years before we get any regualr time to ourselves....oh well.

Molly won't take her medicine. There are only 3 doses, and she has spat out two of them. Good grief! Silly baby. And she's gone straight off to sleep, but I know she will be awake agian in about 15 seconds. And she's eaten a bottle of milk and a small box of raisins today (well, a little more than that, but not much) so will probably be awake all night. Bah.

And DH is eating chocolate RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME HOW VERY DARE HE
He is probably doing it to spite me because I'm on a diet.

Fingers crossed that she'll sleep through (or at least with long stretches in between!) nonetheless, Ellie!

Ellie, do you have anyone at all around that could babysit for you on occasion? Even if just a once-off? Not that it's necessary of course, but is nice to occasionally have a meal together without worrying that the coffee shop / restaurant / random public place is going to ban me and my little hooligan! Mind you, I somehow don't think darling Molly will ever give you that problem. On the misbehaving topic - I'm going to read up on toddler taming behaviour now, as R really needs to calm down a tiny little bit when in these situations.

My diet is not going well tonight... I had an Eggnog Latte at Starbucks (have been waiting all year, and I'm weak), then thought "while I'm here" and had a mince pie. Came back half an hour ago, sitting in front of telly - and ate a third of a tube of Pringles. Damn. I wonder if it counts as a diet if I'm good all week except for Friday nights. Not that I've been good all week, mind, but just a hypothetical question. On the upside, have lost 2 pounds this week.

Well Sal, tis an interesting diet but it appears to be working so carry on having 'bad' days on fridays i say.

Ellie, sorry to hear M not well, hope she picks up soon.

Well I have fireworks and food but need to prepare it all, tidy up and do massive pile of ironing. I stupidly thought DH might have started to tidy whilst I was shopping but no and now hes p'd off to rugby and left me to it. I have sorted outside and mad safe areas for kids and got pots to bury fireworks in but thats it so far.

Better crack on...

Denny, I think the Friday thing might scupper the rest of my diet plans

You sound busy this morning, but it'll be lovely once you're in the midst of the fireworks tonight. Hope you have a great time!

R's very snotty today. Have just rubbed him in with Snufflebabe and drops of Olbas around the room. Am hoping he'll feel a bit better once he's had a nap, otherwise I can't see him being up for fireworks tonight.

You jinxed it by saying he was ok at the moment. Fingers crossed you get out tonight, otherwise you will have to watch out the window.

Everything done now, v busy pm. Dh just walked in offering help bit late me thinks

Sit down and make him bring you a nice warm cup of tea before total chaos starts!

Well, at least he had a nap this afternoon and is now scoffing marshmallows (I am officially Evil Mummy), so fingers crossed. Problem is we have high trees close-ish, so not great for viewing. We can however walk 5 mins from here, and even though the view won't be as great as the proper one (15 mins walk), it would still be good and we can retreat quickly.

We ended up cancelling our 'do' as Babybee's cough/cold just got worse and worse and then he started being sick last night and this morning. Poor thing, he looks wretched. Today he slept from 11 til nearly 4:30 he was so poorly, barely ate a thing and not that interested in his milk either. I'm hoping that long nap was a chance for his little body to start fighting back, fingers crossed for an uninterrupted night tonight.

Lots of fireworks happening locally so we're looking out the windows and swearing to do something better next year.

Oh Ladybee, that's horrible! Poor, poor thing. I do believe that sleep is in most cases the best thing for them and unless major infection etc, works better than anything else, so fingers crossed for a good night from me too.

After uhm-ing and ahh-ing over whether or not to take R out to fireworks, we dressed him up in more layers than you'd think physically possible, and went over... and he LOVED it! We didn't stand as close as we did pre-him, so didn't "feel" the whole thing so much, but had great views. (Thought it better for his ears and easier to retreat if no good.) It was so cool - he kept saying "oooooooh" and "wow" and kicking his legs with the music - it was adorable.

I'm hoping he gets a good night sleep as well. From Monday I'm going to look into getting him to a physio / looking at breathing exercises for his lungs, as it's doing my head in that as soon as he has even the mildest cold, he struggles breathing. You can feel his heart beating so hard and his whole chest struggling - and the wheezing. Breaks my heart - I can't live in England and make him suffer for weeks/months at a time. Nothing wrong with England, mind you, it's just that he seems to be really sensitive to cold weather. Last time he had bronchiolitis the doc said to use the mild ventilator all the time as soon as he struggles, and the stronger (more meds) when it gets worse. It's not really a long term solution though, surely.

Peachy, are you around? Ages ago you recommended a book - had to do with communication between you and your child (or that applied to that too - it was a dog training book of some sort), and I'm not sure if it is the one I'm currently looking at... Is it "Don't shoot the dog"? The name and picture sounds/looks familiar, but I'm not sure. Thanks.

Hello

Anybody else thinking about pottys? Just I swear Mimi knows.... But am aware of baby due in 6 weeks as well. I don't even have a potty yet. What shall I do? I am thinking just try her out over next few weeks. The boys were never this early! She is talking more, we get bottle, baby, daddy, dummy, mama, cat, car and I think that's it. But I'm happy

had huge Chinese last night at all you can eat! Was nice to get out with DH. Only 6 weeks Friday til Xmas day people. I fully expect you all to keep checking your fb/mn for maisie news!!

Hope you're all ok !

Good afternoon, everybody.

Well, re potty training - I've decided to wait until R's 2 before starting. Have started to let him know when I go to the bathroom for a wee, etc - just so that he can associate it, but the hows and whens can follow later.

I lost my set of keys today! It must be here somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it. Dh had to come home from work (working at home now) so that I could get out! I am really annoying myself.

6 weeks, hey Scorp?! Can't believe how quickly time has flown since you found out! Can't wait for the announcements.

Hi all. Sorry to hear about poorly babies. We've all been poorly too. Sam woke up in the early hours of Friday morning projectile vomiting ... nice Every time I changed his bedding he threw up all over it, then he came into our room while I was cleaning up and proceeded to throw up all over our bed By the time the alarm went off all of us were pukey so we all stayed at home. Of course when Sam woke up he was completely cured and had a great day - little darling

I've also trapped a nerve in my back and am in absolute agony so am trying to get a physio appointment to sort that out. Not good I tell you!

Wish DH and I could have a regular date night We only get to go out when we have family visit. It's good at the moment though as my mum babysat for us last month and DH's mum is here in 4 weeks and will babysit for us then. So this year we'll have been out (just the 2 of us) 4 times!!! I must admit though we do have people who offer to babysit for us, it's just that most of the time we can't be bothered

You'll also be pleased to know that in Sophland (LOL) the weather has got increasingly worse & have made the decision today that it's probably going to be the last day I'll be wearing sandals .... must try & squeeze my feet back into proper shoes!

Hey soph! I am very sorry to hear you have just started to wear sandals. Poor you. [Ellie types very sacastically]

What a lot of poorly babes! Poor little mites. Mol is better today, though still has a bit of a cough and isn't eating much, she is sleeping better and in much better spirit.

sal - I lost NO weight last week, so think i have to try a bit harder this week. Boo. Today have eaten 2 choclate biscuits though, so it ain't happening yet

Oop, can't spell very well today, please ignore typos

Promise I won't gloat anymore ... just in case you all stop speaking to me.

Pleased to hear that Mol is feeling better.

Soph - I'll stop moaning - sounds like it's, uhm, busy in your house! Fingers crossed that you get your appointment soon as. In meantime, have nice long bath and make dh massage you. For medical reasons, you see.

Ellie, but remember, you ate half a some cake before you started, so maybe it's just delayed loss - bet you'll lose some when you weigh yourself again in a week or so! And anyway, with this rubbish weather it's so hard not to eat stew with loads of potatoes 3 times a day - and end the day with hot choc! Not that I've ever done that. Oh no no no.

I lost some, but only during the first half of the week (before I started eating like there's no tomorrow...) Had chinese for lunch (blame Scorpio), followed with Eggnog Latte from Starbucks. Not good. I'll cut carbs out a bit again - works really good for me.

Sal have you tried getting some bubbles and getting to try and blow them, thats as far as my paed respiratory exercises go Im afraid, short of getting them to run around or bounce on trampets to increase lung function. DD1 was a bronchiolitic child and she ended up being diagnosed with asthma, shes 7 now and is asymptomatic, we just go to the asthma nurse once a year to keep an eye.

Sorry to hear all is not well with you Soph, hope you get some sound advice for that back and your all feeling better soon.

Well my thoughts of people leaving shortly after food on Sat night didnt happen. Everyone was here till 11/11.30 We did manage to keep kids downstairs so the damage was limited and we tidied the kitchen before we went to bed so really not too bad on Sun. Now considering a party for new years eve.

Ellie, its v difficult to try harder when there are chocolate biscuits on offer isnt it?

Thanks Denny - no, haven't tried the bubbles exercise, but definitely will. He's obsessed with bubbles, so it might just work! This is really bad, I know, but I haven't thought of the obvious - to make him run around. bad/stupid mummy! I'll do that. Your advice is brilliant, as these are all things that he'd love. The gym has a jumping castle, so will see if he likes that too. Thanks again. Good to hear that dd1 got better - the doc said today that they usually grow out of it, but it's nice to hear "real life" success.

I wondered how your party went. Sounds like a great success!

Poo poo poo my house might not be going through as the survey was a bit crap and said there's loads of damp but have handed in notice on flat and they have already got someone for it so at the end of the month if my house falls through I'll be homeless!!!!!!!

I can't believe how stupid and complicated life is am SO SO stressed what am I going to do?! It takes forever to find somewhere to rent or buy and me and the kids will end up camping out in my Dad's spare room and his partner is weird and has lots of cats.

Ellie... Our new house has lots of damp too. We got an independant damp expert to come and see, and it didn't need half the things doing that the people who do the work said needed doing. In this house it's more down to bad ventilation than rising damp, and he's fitted special wall things to help the condensation escape, and we have a dehumidifier running quite a lot too, especially when drying clothes etc. The expert bloke gave us loads of advise on what to do. Might be worth asking someone like that?