December 2006- Here's to pre-school newbies, business starters and twin survivers.

[Indith]

Oh go on then.

I'm rubbish at titles though but I bow down to Oli's cakes and supermum.

Am going to be absent a lot until my deadline on April 30th I fear. Sounds like I'm not the only one with a lot on. Hope you make it through the week unscathed Oli and Jabber. Indith, I think you deserve a potty training related glass of wine. I'd have gone potty by now, ha ha. No, jokes were never my strong point.

Best get back to work. Only another 9000 words to go...

Good luck Lenni!

Lots of poo pants yesterday but he is exactly the same with nappies so hey ho. He is doing so well for wee, I am very proud!

Started the summer wardrobe hunt in the charity shops and they both wanted to put things on when we got home so ds now sporting a t-shirt over his jumper and dd's new hat and dd has a lovely summer dress on

I feel like a bad parent as ds had grown well out of his shoes before I noticed, he had gone up a whole size . Managed ot persuade him into some blue ones with flashing lights which I feel was good compromise skills on my part as he had been insisting on pretty party shoes with butterflies like dd

Another good luck wish lenni!

Indith, if we had a girl ds2 would be the same re:shoes. He also loooooves to play with my makeup and get his nails painted. It drives dh mad

oli, have taken your advice! Wine does help.

Dh has taken the boys on an overnight camping trip for spring break. I am now contemplating cleaning the house....perhaps shall need more wine even to think about it.

I'd go for the wine Jabber. About 10 mins before they are due back put some loo cleaner down the loo so dh thinks you've cleaned the bathroom and put the hoover just outside the cupboard so you can leap up and be "just putting it away" as they come through the door

Has anyone got any chocolate?

Would love some chocolate! But I'm trying to be good so as to fit into a certain dress by the 24th of April

Anything nice?

Dh went out to buy firelighters and came home with cake

Dd now sleeping 6.30 til 2 ish, feeding then sleeping til 5 ish, feeding quickly then going til 6.30/7.

I kind of want to push it a bit and try to ditch the feed or at least get it later so she is only waking once but I think I'm going to leave it until we get back from France. I'm just dying to get her sharing with ds now though, the amount of crap everywhere is starting to get to me and I want to be able to sort out our storage!

Ds got a lovely letter from his new nursery today so just need to sort out settling in sessions and in April he will start going one full day and one half day Just enough I think. Can't believe that in September it will be school visits and applications!

I've just eaten the choc chips meant for baking there is always choc at my house, indith! Great news about nursery btw. Still, I did go running twice this week and 2 long walks today. Trying really hard to get some energy back.
oli, fb'd my mobile no to you, did you get?
jabber, did you get virtual flowers, can't figure out if it's working & I'm getting too obsessed with growing the things fgs! You shall have to post pic of you at posh do in posh frock btw.
Bit puzzled (ha ha, you'll see what I mean) about ds2. He is obviously behind with language, just waiting for SALT appt in a few weeks to see what they can advise. He's struggling with gross motor skills (although fine motor skills very good) and seems to not 'get' things very quickly. He's very very very neat, tidy, pedantic etc etc even for a 3 yo (nursery agree with me).

However, I have started buying him puzzles for 4+ as he find the 3+ ones even 40+ pieces too easy. I've tried mixing up 2 puzzles etc, he breezes through anything. He's also phenomenal at memory games, remembers when I don't and I am very good too! Can't understand what's going on, and don't know how/where to ask, he's such a polar opposite to ds1. I am showing complete ignorance here of how the brain works, anyone got any advice as dp & I are struggling to know what to do to support him in view of him starting school next year.

AQ, that sound's like DS was at that age except he did get things very quickly and wasn't neat, tidy, pedantic. Still isn't!! As you know (probably) he was dx with a severe language disorder aged 5. Aged 8 he doesn't have it anymore just 'mild word finding difficulties'. I reckon when they are behind at something they over compensate in other areas: in my DS (and yours) by being brilliant at all things cerebal - 100+ puzzles, exceptional memory (which he still has). He was also behind at gross motor skills, fine skills also normal except for scissor use. Again, as you prob remember, last year he was dyspraxic: this year he's been discharged because he's not although he did have some great OT.

If he's behind with motor skills I'd get him to an OT asap as they really can work wonders. The speech will probably catch up especially as he has the smarts by the sound of it but is probably just behind/lazy/a perfectionist. We had a private SALT for a year and he took off then (along with a term of 1:1 at school).

There was no bigger head scratching case than my DS but today he's still extremely clever and a bit quirky but otherwise a typical annoying 8 year old Email me is you want any further reassurance/advice xx

Oh and he's also an extremely lazy arse which might explain a few things ...

Thanks, castles, hadn't thought of our ds's as being similar but you're right. DS2 not lazy just the opposite and drops me in it all the time e.g. why haven't you cleaned that mummy? Did you get OT via GP or privately? Did ds seem very clumsy to you at that age, ds2 seems to struggle with basics like getting into car seat, up on sofa. Had been taking him to gym-type group but they cancelled it and can't do it with the twins in tow.
How are the panic attacks? Mine thank god subsided once I returned to work and I realised it was ok. I wasn't coping at all with them.

I did get the flowers AQ, thank you so much! I am a bit remiss in my FB posting this past week. Taxes and bills have had me too distracted

I would recommend OT as well. They can do amazing things! It may be as simple as working on core muscle strength. Ds1 has been better at so many things since going through OT.

Speaking of ds1, have just had uncomfortable talk with dh about the homing bracelet thing. He's really against it, I'm kind of for it but don't want to cause major family upset and most of all just want to keep ds1 safe. The running away incident last Sunday just seemed to be the last straw for me but dh doesn't see it that way.

AQ, DS wasn't clumsy but definitely behind with gross motor skills at that age. My OT was recommended by friends at same school not GP. Private and (another) small fortune but so worth it. Fwiw, private OTs are much better than NHS ones though that could just be our area. The nhs one that visited him at school was crap. Also, just to clarify: DS is very active, he's lazy about school work. Probably because he finds it easy and I compare him to DD1 who is Miss Conscientous

All the children got given an Easter egg at toddlers today. I ripped it open and ate the malteasers as soon as we got home. I love that ds hates chocolate!

Well done on the running AQ, If you can spare a kick up the bum this way I need to get going again!

AQ your ds sounds very bright Hopefully you can find someone in the know to chat to and with a bit of support where he needs it things will even out as speech etc catches up with everything else. I'm amazed at his puzzle abilities, I'd struggle with a couple of mixed up ones

I need to get an appointment for ds at the Dr. I think he needs to go on a laxative for a while to force him to go until it has become enough of a habit to get him over his hatred of doing it. A stool softener does nothing. It isn't hard, it isn't painful, he just doesn't like doing it. You can see him starting to need to push but he stops himself so you get a few days of being fine then a few days of overflow and horrible behaviour and waking at night with a tummy ache before it finally gets too much and he does a poo and it all starts over again. Of course once it has built up like that he loses the sensation of when to go and it also throws wee out. He did a poo yesterday so after a week of doing really well on the toilet for wees he is having accidents left right and centre again It upsets him now though which it didn't so much before as he has been so proud of himself and so happy "doing a big noisy wee on the toilet like daddy do".

Tesco order in the next half hour, woohoo! the cupboards are bare and I need to get bread on (but have no bread flour or yeast) and some yoghurt on. Kind of wish I had bought some fruit though as my fruitbowl is full of pears that refuse to ripen and plums as hard as rocks. I feel poached pears and a plum tart coming on. Never send a man fruit shopping, he just doesn't actually check if things are in any way ripe before he buys them!

Gah! Jabber I didn't mean to forget you! Sorry things are tough with ds1, of course you just want to keep him safe. I hope you and dh can find a way of dealing with things you are both happy with.

Bookmarking, am lurking.

Thanks, Indith wouldn't you know the bracelet appointment got rescheduled for tomorrow. More dh frowning and growling...

Indith, you may want to do a round of miralax. Chronic toddler constipation or holding of poo is not a fun place to be!

So ds now on fibrogel to try to promote a normal pattern of bowl movements. The idea is that on fibrogel he won't be able to hold onto it.

Now how do I get the child to drink it?

Mix it with juice. That's what we do with ds1. If it doesn't dissolve well mix it with a little water then add juice. He'll never know.

Oh, and ds1 now wearing bracelet. It's not terribly attractive though Transmitter is much larger than I anticipated. We are decorating it up as a spy watch. We'll see how it goes at school.

Thanks Jabber

Hope things go ok with the bracelet, fingers crossed.

2 boys, both potty training.
2 girls, both dd's age.
1 baby
3 mothers
lunch
biscuits
chocolate

= 5 pairs of pants, 3 tops, 2 spilt drinks, 2 accidents on the floor, 1 session on the bottom step, 3 mothers desperately reaching for the brownies and nicking the sweets the dcs were decorating their biscuits with.

Dd snotty again and teething and doesn't want to nap. I have not packed at all. I still need to locate and print off the flight details and the carparking details. Dh is out tonight and not coming back between work and going out so I get to do dinner, bedtime etc then clean, do the mountain of washing up, put the nappies on to wash and hang them out so we don't have a stinky bucket to come home to then do all the packing and attempt not to forget anything vital.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Hello all,

at how long its been. I keep waiting to have more time/energy to post, never works...and the longer I wait, the more I have to catch up with, the more I think I need time. IYSWIM. Daft.

Very nice to see WB again! And congrats!

No huge news here, just been up to ears in building project/novel writing (still trying)/kids and school stuff. And having too many migraines/back problems - think I'm going to have to have my back propertly MOTed now that I've hit the next decade...

So much to catch up on that I probably won't, so will just dive in again! Though I did read the last few posts and am v v sorry re your sister, Oli....I had 4 m/cs pre-dds, I do feel for her. And can relate, Solo.

dd's last day at school today, yippee (I think ) for 13 whole days, so hopefully will have more space to chat! Missed you, hope everyone more or less ok!

Hello Eli so what's it like to be 30? Am intrigued by your novel writing. It is on my short-list of things to do when I grow up

We are on holiday as of yesterday and it is bliss. So far!

Jabber, sorry about the tagging. Hope it is going well.

Indith, your to do list sound's like a typical day to me. Good luck with it all! .