June 08- the shoes, the food, the glamour!

[pureeandpearls]

Struggling to load pages these days and saw we were over the 900 so took the liberty of starting a new thread.

False alarm! Not sure what S had done but a combination of buttons pressed seemed to stop us being able to turn it on. All fixed now. No shiny clean new double oven though

"Essie" so sorry about your friend. HIs poor family.

Going I kept forgetting to post to thank you for your comments about little girls and getting dressed. It was getting really ridiculous and DD1 was very miserable. . Yesterday I took the children to John Lewis and more or less gave DD1 free rein to chose winter clothes. She now has a rather pink/purple-themed collection of clothes including some quite alarming accessories , but is ecstatic. I took all 4 into town on the train and they were so good. I was really proud of them

DD1 has a perforated ear drum again. It's happened a few times. She gets awful earache for a few days, then the drum bursts and the fluid dribbles out, leaving her deaf as a post while it heals. She can't go swimming for 6 weeks (I've just paid £100 for swimming lessons for 3 of them ).

Thea is "drawing" on everything she can find, including herself, so I need to go on pen alert. I remember this with DD1 when I was pregnant with Thea.

There were loads of little babies in town yesterday. A 6 week old and some 4 month olds. The little one was still all scrunched up, like Sponge's

...forgot to post this. I spoke to soon about DD1 getting dressed. We went out today with her wearing:
woolly hat with alice band on top
gloves, coat
t-shirt
party skirt with leggings underneath, rolled up to the knee, with striped socks and school shoes.

She was warm but looked bonkers, as did I as I have to shout at her for her to hear.

Debsorry you've got so much on your plate right now.

BDQ - what a shame about not getting your new oven!How did the revising go today?

Neenz - glad you're meeting some new friends

Abdn - that's a high pregnancy rate Think of all those lovely outdoor things you can do now with your 2 boys, it's not so easy when the baby comes along.

Rolf - poor dd1 with her ear, your description of her outfit did make me smile though. All 4 on the train and then shopping - you need an award woman!

So far so good tonight, couldn't get Ethan to eat any more today but he was OK in himself, Stefan's gone to bed with the bucket next to him as he felt sick but I think he didn't want to miss out on the attention!

lol at Stefan wanting to get in on the act Deb!

Rolf, I was pmsl at your DD's outfit, and imagining you shouting at her . I bet she looked great. I think it was definitely the right thing to do to let her choose her own clothes - it's good that she has such a strong character (not so much for you some of the time ), she will probably become a famous Turner Prize winning artist, or maybe Prime Minister . My niece used to refuse to wear everything my sister chose and insisted on picking her own clothes from about the age of 4, so I don;t think it is uncommon in girls! Hope her ear gets better soon, poor thing.

I was too at TrintiyRhino's thread - I saw that last night. I said to DH 'Oh this is so sad, a woman here is asking people to send her kids shoes' He said 'what size does she need?' I said 'not any size we have' and he said 'no but we could buy some for her' . Thanks to other Mners I don't think that will be necessary.

I didn't realise Trinityrhino's DH was killed in a car crash in August. I totally missed that [sad. How tragic, God bless her

I think I will send her some money after all

Rolf sorry about DD's ear. My mum has had that and I know she found it painful.

deb revision was painfully slow yesterday. I feel like I've done nothing but go to work or be at home ill or revising for weeks and weeks and i'm starting to get serious cabin fever. Am going to switch topics today to see if that re-energises me. How are things at yours? Is everyone starting to feel better?

neenz - yep, it is really sad isn't it. Her dss and gf live with her and are expecting a baby so i'm going to send some unworn baby clothes I have.

Rolf I realy laughed at your description of your dd's outfit! Just so similar to dd1 thankfully now she has a better sense of style than I do though at the moment she does like black a bit to much for my liking. Hope her ear gets better soon.

DebsHope you are all feeling well today.

Neenz That is very sad for trinityrhino. Seems like she is going to have a house ful of shoes now!!!

Going, I think all black is great! Better than all pink. My sister convinced her daughter that her fave colour was orange not pink (not sure why orange - I think it is foul) but as soon as she started school it was pink pink pink all the way. Nothing wrong with pink but it is a bit unoriginal isn't it!

I bet your DCs will love Miley Cyrus. I was not that shocked at the ticket price although it is extortionate, that is just the price of these things these days isn't it . Great that F's work can help pay for it . I really fancy going to the see Beyonce next week but the tickets are £330 for two! Through an agency, I don't know how they get away with it because the face vaule of the tickets is £75 each. They are great tickets, standing in the 'golden circle' right at the front, so I might go for it anyway, just going to see if the price comes down nearer the time, and maybe check ebay, if they have tickets left they might take less for them [hoping]

Right, have been away for a week (had lovely time, spent whole week in shorts) and have read thread but can't remember who said what.

Whoever it was who didn't want to move to move to Hertfordshire though - oi! there are some fab places to live in Hertfordshire!

Have spent too long reading and now have to go an do (yet) another load of washing in between dishing out halloween treats at the front door. Sorry if I missed anything vital...

neenz no it wasn't us who'd had the vasectomy - I'm just on the mini pill We might decide to eventually have a third I guess, we don't think we will but aren't ready to make a permanent decision IYSWIM.

We just had a fabulous hallowe'en, hope everyone else did, though I don't think it's as big a deal in England. DS1 was so excited he couldn't eat his tea and I'm amazed he went to bed tonight.

Oops! Sorry Abdn, who was that then who had the little PG scare after the snip?

Welcome home sybil, it was Spider whose Dh got offered a job in Herts!

We have had a good halloween even though we don't 'do' halloween (being Christians and all) - but we were invited to two parties and it would have been rude to say no. So we went but just didn't dress up, but others didn't dress up too so we didn't look too silly. I was quite shocked at how many people have 'done' halloween this year, is it cos it is on a saturday? Even the staff at tesco had halloween outfits, on which I thought was quite inappropriate really, but I'm sure I am in a minority and most people would think I am just being miserable!

Welcome back Sybil. Glad you had a good time.

Nice to hear Abdn and Neenz had good Hallowe'ens. We had a good one, too. The children dressed up and we did trick or treating down our road (we live in a cul de sac) and some children from down the road came round for hot chocolate afterwards, just in case their sugar levels weren't high enough. The only bad bit was that I couldn't find my box of hairy spiders. I have some lovely ones that I dangle in the window and I bought them from a joke shop where the staff have spent a bit too long in that line of business. They make helpful remarks like "ooh, that's a good price for a hairy spider" and "well we're out of fake cat poo but we have dog poo which some people prefer as it's bigger" . So whenever I get the spiders out I think of how much I enjoyed buying them.

Interesting that you don't "do" Hallowe'en, Neenz. I don't "do" the Easter bunny and am quite humourless about it. We have Easter eggs and have a special day, but I'm pretty firm with the children about it being the centre of the Church year.

I should wipe this table before I go on mumsnet again. I think the computer has stuck to some Hallowe'en sweets . My arms are sticky.

Deb how are you all? Is Nigel better now? And Ethan? I hope you and the other boys haven't come down with it.

Halloween sort of passed me by as usual, bar getting in sweets for the local guisers. Seeing all the Halloween activity has got me talking about pumpkin carving next year though . I'm catholic but don't mind Halloween at all - just a bit of silly fun I think. There's at least one thread debating religion and Halloween on MN that I've seen.

Busy watching X factor - rock night seems a bit of a disaster!

Rolf ,BDQ and Going2- thanks for asking, Nigel is quite a lot better today and Stefan was just wanting attention like I thought. Mil was poorly today though but I think it was a hangover rather than the bug.

Sybil - where did you go on holiday?

Neenz - we don't really do Halloween here because the other children don't seem to, I'm sure if we were back in the UK we would.

Puree - how was your Halloween party?

PP - how are things going with your big move?

Hi Amber if you're lurking, hope your move goes well.

Whinegums - you move soon too don't you?

Spent the day today preparing for winter - trampoline is now packed away, winter tyres are on, have practised with the snow chains, cut down some trees etc etc.. This year it made me really depressed though, at the thought of winter, I know I'll be OK once the season starts and the guests are here I won't have tine to be miserable. Got quite a few English or english speaking guests this year too so that will be good.Hoping that the guests who are driving to us for Christmas will bring me a box of Christmas crackers and a jar of mincemeat.

Can I just ask how is your toddler at eating - do they use a spoon/fork sometimes/all the time. I'm sure the other boys were more advanced than Ethan at this age but I think that was down to the great childminder they had rather than me!

deb I still spoon feed S a lot. He can feed himself a loaded spoon but can't be bothered a lot of the time. In the last week or two he's shown more interest and has sometimes managed to get food on the spoon himself. Haven't even thought about giving him a spoon yet. He's going through a phase of throwing the spoon across the room so I won't take the risk with a fork!

Deb I often spoon-feed as a way of getting more food down her. She doesn't eat very much when she feeds herself, so in between her own efforts I shove a spoon in.

Thanks BDQ and Rolf for the reassurances, sounds like Ethan is doing just fine then.

I'm Christian and we definitely do Hallowe'en To me it's not a religious holiday and I'm much less in favour of the secularization of Christmas.

Fraser insists on feeding himself but honestly there's a lot of fingers involved so I wouldn't worry Deb.

Hi, I tried to get on earlier to post, but everything seemed to have disappeared. All ok now.

Deb, yes, we do move soon - we get the keys on Fri 13th - less than a fortnight now. Still have loads of packing to do, but we don't have to vacate our flat straight away at least, so we can take our time.

B plays around with a spoon at mealtimes, but isn't interesting in using it to feed himself. He prefers to scoop a handful from the bowl if I'm not being quick enough, which was fun with last night's spag bol. I'm pretty laid back about the mess in here, can't imagine I will be in the new place.

We didn't do anything for Hallowe'en - not because we've got any strong feelings either way about it, just couldn't be bothered, as we're still all getting over a rotten cold. Added to which the urchins out guising don't bother us, which is one of the few benefits of having three flights of stairs between us and the ground. I did make a half hearted attempt to find B a costume as they had a party at nursery on Friday afternoon, but failed miserably.

Hm, I sound like a real cheery soul today don't I? I am quite cheery in fact, it's just not coming over very well!

Hope you're all having a good Sunday.

Quick post to mark my spot - we actually 'did' Halloween last night cos we have a Canadian friend who lives round the corner and had organised a lovely party and trick or treating. You're right AH, Halloween hasn't been such a big deal here, but looks like that is changing - the streets were packed round our way last night!

Have to say my cute little skeleton stole the show [proud mum emoticon] - he wasn't really interested in the sweets but loved all the attention he got as he rung on the doorbell and then got loads of oohs and ahhs at this 16mth old trick or treater! Very funny!

We have a very strict rule where I live that people only ring on the doorbell if you have a pumpkin outside, so all those whose doorbells we rang on were totally into the spirit of the thing and anyone who didn't want to know was left alone.

Oh and my scrunched up baby ( @ Rolf) slept all the way through it!

Quick hello, we seem to have been busy all weekend and are waiting for a friend to arrive so will carry on being busy I guess.

We hardly had any trick or treaters here, I think it's because we don't know many local people, lots of chocs left for me!

Blooming chucking it down here. We've lit the fire, it's not that cold but it makes it feel a lot cosier.

We are planning on moving J into his new bedroom this afternoon, very exciting.

Sorry I've not caught up with anyone, hope you are all enjoying your weekends.

I don't have any problem with halloween and religion. Our kids just dressed up and went along the houses in our cul-de-sac. Jamie and I stayed at home and dished out at the door. Jamie was mummy's little pumpkin and looked very cute in a plush orange sleepsuit. Sadly he refused to wear the pumpkin stalk hat though.

Neenz we were the ones with the vascectomy/pg worry. It thankfully turned out ok though.

We went to Mallorca on hols. It was lovely and warm (mid-late 20's by lunchtime) and we spent lots of time splashing about in the med and looking round pretty towns in the north of the island. Pool was a bit brisk though!

having stocked up on sweeties we didnt get a single trick or treater .. I wonder what I shall do with the treats now

quick post as having luxurious afternoon home alone as e gone with daddy to pick up her big bro for a feed up as he is a poor starving student.

Sponge- do post photos...

ktpie good luck with the bedroom move.

whinegums -your move seems to have come round really quickly.

right back to net xmas shopping after my unsuccessful foray to the shops earlier (is it me or are elc shops like some inner circle of hell!?)

ah and deb its more hit than miss here with a spoon/fork - in fact she has turned meal times into a bit of a battle lately - partly cos she can, partly as she is teething/been tired this weke (am keeping my fingers crossed that the staying up at night that makes her so tired has stopped) and also cos I think she wants to feed herself but more with her hands than any cutlery...