One small step for Baby, one large step (or mad dash to prevent disaster) for Mumkind

[ninja]

Hi, Welcome to the new thread, the one where we can't drink a cup of tea in peace (there you go, we could have used that for a title!!)

I was in bodyshop yesterday and M trashed the place. Luckily the sales assistant thought she was sweet as she pulled things off displays and legged it out the shop with jars of body butter (several times)!!, cue me legging it after her with a handful of makeup . Luckily there were no store detectives aroud. She also tried to wear every shoe within her reach at the shoe shop.

oh, yes and I let my 13 mo old play with plastic stinky nappy bags.

A was playing with the nappy bucket lid yesterday - and squashed his fingers with it. Of course he then leant on the hand holding the lid to try to move the squashed hand, making it worse. Obviously what I get for letting him play with it. Poor boo has a bit of rash from disposable nappies today, because most of his wraps have gone missing. I swear there was a pile of bagged dirty nappies in the hall on Thursday before the cleaner came - MrNC even looked through the dustbin for them but no joy. Will be most annoyed if they've disappeared especially as I can't get more with no sodding post (things have taken an average of 2 weeks first class to me over the last month!)

Spent today looking after A and SIL2ds (17 months)... so lots of opportunity to practice my NO! and Voice Of Doom. I don't want to smack partly because my mum only did it when she lost it and I just thought she was pathetic (my patronising 6-year-old self...), and from experience at schools where it was still used a bit, but not much as they'd realised it wasn't nearly as much of a deterrent as detention or being made to clean the 6th-form kitchen!

I do thwap both boys' hands when trying to get the concept of No! DON'T TOUCH THAT! into them, but it's the same level of force as in Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.
What I find much more difficult is deciding how sharing ought to work and when to intervene (currently SIL2ds is much more agile and mobile than A, who can't walk yet, but soon they'll be much more equal at snatching etc). I'm an only child and find siblings hitting each other most disconcerting.

Ah, yes dd2 has closed the toilet lid on her hand and then pressed down with the other in an effort to extricate the trapped hand. Has also done it with the kitchen bin too. on Friday she merrily dumped dd1's coat in the downstairs loo and as I shouted 'NO!' and retrieved it, discovered DD1's brand new Hello Kitty gloves floating in the water below it. Yuck. She is trying 'to tidy things away', I think.

NC if you work out the answer to teaching kids to share then you'll have made your fortune and can retire! They don't know how to take turns, and have no idea when they let another child use a toy that they'll ever get it back again. I've found playing alongside the kids and doing your-turn-your-turn quickly so they get the hang is good, and a one minute warning that they'll be asked to give it to the other child. Its a daily process though, for months and months and months...!

We've been busy bees, the day after we move into our new house we've got the electrician, carpet fitter, argos delivery and architect coming round! Striking while the iron's hot and the enthusiasm hasn't waned!

carriebo I know what you mean re: strictly...madness!!!!

....I made the mistake of throwing one of tobys manky chewed up biscuits in the bin the other day...turned around about 5 mins later and he had obviously been in the bin, retrieved it and was munching away happily on it again.

He also likes to retrieve used kleenex's from the wastepaper bin too.

He is too disgusting for words!

No, send them two baby poo's!

The arseholes are trying it on - especially the expedia bit, How dare they threaten you with that. I would have erupted at the twat on the phone. Hell has no fury like a MoveIt scorned

We've got a soft close toilet seat so thankfully we don't have any trapped fingers in it.

we went to B&Q today and ds2 played with the toilet seat lids to his hearts content while ds1 climbed in and out of the shower cubicles pretending he was getting on a train.
I didn't realise it was such a good playground! And it's only 5 mins walk away

I read your post thinking you went to a BBQ today! I though 'you Scots are a hardy breed'

lol

yes trapped fingers in toilets here too.

I've had to retrieve various things from them too [yuk emotion]

and rifling through wastebins is a favourite activity.

They're nothing if not predictable

we've had near misses with ds almost shutting dd's fingers under doors when she's crawling behind him.

starlight on your behalf about BG. I've not been in that situation but it does sound like they are taking the piss. I'd ring them back and pester the hell out of them and start mentioning Watchdog or CAB.

I'm currently watching 'Life', its about Fish this week. I have to vet each episode so I know which bits to fast forward when I let DS watch it. A couple of weeks ago I had to hurry past the part where two huge komodo dragons were trying to rip each others head off, DS " aw, they are huggling". . I do tell him about things dying and animals eating each other, I'm just trying to introduce the harsher facts of life slowly and not freak out the little mite. He has a thing about hedgehog and pigeon road kill at the moment .

starlight I would be complaining, the BG website says "If you are not happy with the resolution of your complaint, please contact Andy Eley, Head of Complaints, by post: British Gas, PO Box 3116, Eastbourne, BN21 9JH, by phone: 0800 107 0184 or via email: [email protected]."

Yes, that was my first flaming, it didn't really bother me coz I know that I'm not cold, calculating, disgusting, or any of the other things I was called. Funny how the people who were abusive are anti-smacking...do you think they hurl verbal abuse around their houses instead?!

bec that makes me feel better about DS eating cold hard peas off the floor under the table after breakfast this morning!

Hi just checking back in.
Had a lovely half term DS was happy most of the time, Robyn managed 2 full nights sleep and it was DP's birthday.

On the subject of 'slapping' I was smacked by mum as a child but never by dad. I have smacked my elder two from when they were a couple of years old but it usually left me feeling distraught. I think it is quite easy to get infuriated and use a smack as a way of releasing your tension which is really wrong.
When they are thoroughly winding me up it has been a last resort thing although DD1 is now 13 and a bit too old for a slap. taking away her priviledges is a much better deterrent. I wouldn't hit Robyn as she is too young to understand and if she is fiddling with the sky and rewinding it then I just move her and she screams anyway.

Oh and she can now stand up by herself from sitting. Not walking yet but will run if dad has her under her armpits.

oh foxy! I am in stalker mode I shall have a Christmas meal if it kills me

As you were

carriebo I refuse to even consider what toby has eaten off my kitchen floor

My kitchen floor is so vile I have a gate at the door so ds can't get in

DS new trick is to blow spit bubbles And he is most defo doing it on purpose.

meglet - I can't watch any nature programmes as I end up feeling really quite distraught. To try and sex things up they nearly always have a mother losing their baby and/or a death. It just upsets me too much to watch it

DS2's new trick is to swing on his seat at the table- he's on a booster seat and has a wall behind him so he pushes off with his feet and leans on the wall- and then wags his finger at us while grinning very cheekily.

Also, 1 yoghurt in a pack I bought a couple of weeks ago had a cow on the lid and since then he insists on calling every yoghurt he sees a cow!

He's stopped learning new words while he concentrates on walking and at the moment calls everything with wheels a car and everything with legs a cow.

We're trying again to convince A he can go to sleep at night without mummy milk. MrNC was home yesterday so gave him a big bottle and then tried putting him down. A instantly decided he was totally awake and demanded to get up. Eventually he acted tired again so I took him upstairs, but he started pointing angrily away. Eventually I realised he was pointing at my room where I bf him, and demnading I feed him!

So I did and 2 minutes later had a baby happy to go in his cot. Today I got home as he was finishing the bottle with a most unimpressed expression. I was exhausted so just fed him so he'd go to sleep.

I think I need more willpower. And an early night. MrNChas just set the nappies to wash again after remembering too late that nursery tend to leave the poo in them...

I avoid so many programmes I used to watch. Actually I started avoiding books and films designed to tug your heartstrings ages ago so tend to read lots of non-fiction reference type stuff.

notcitrus I used to ADORE horror films - the scarier & gorier the better. I am now too scared to watch them, because of course, it's highly probable and likely that a masked madman with a chainsaw will come back from the grave and break into my house....

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about my dilemmas today:

• last bottle of the night & teeth cleaning: We clean C's teeth in the bath (she has 6 - teeth not baths!!) and then she has her last bottle. Even now, 9 times out of 10 she falls fast asleep on the bottle and sleeps soundly till morning. HV was horrified and said we must wake her to clean her teeth afterwards. I do worry but it would be like waking the unconcious to do this. She only has 2 bottles a day, is never left with a bottle and drinks water from her sippy cup in the day. I know enough about hv now to ignore her panic but still....

• still on the subject of milk, she has about 70-90 mls of ff/cows milk (made ratio 50/50) in the morning and then has porridge made with cows milk. If we try to increase the cows milk in her bottle, she wont have it. She has also started to fuss over her porridge. Should we think about dropping her morning bottle? Is it filling her up do you think? I have tried her with a cup of warmed milk in the morning but she only sips from it and takes 10/20mls at best.

Any thoughts/experience?

Thanks for the book suggestions - will go and raid the library!

IMO can't be any help on the milk front, except to add that we quite often forget to brush T's teeth after his last milk (he has it a fair while before bed, so easy to do, we just forget).

I haven't been able to watch nature docs since I was about 18 - far too wimpy to watch the baby animals die.

IOM both mine get their teeth brushed while in the bath or getting washed. DS2 then has his milk and goes to bed, DS1 has a story and his milk then goes to bed.
Next time you to the dentist ask him/her as they'll know more than the hv about teeth.
My sil is a dental hygenist and she's never commented about the way we do the boy's teeth.

Does she always have porridge for breakfast? Could it be that's she's just bored of it? I guess you could try giving her less milk and porridge one day and try same milk and different breakfast another day and see which seems to go down better.
My ds2 only drinks about 1 tommee tippee cup of milk total a day.

IMO When my dd was old enough not to fall asleep on the bottle, we started brushing her teeth after the bottle as the last thing she did at night. What do you think would happen if you took her to brush her teeth - even if it roused her slightly, would she still go nicely back to sleep?
Again with reference to my dd, we found she wasn't eating breakfast so we dropped the morning bottle.
DS is totally the opposite though - he dropped his night time feed months ago, but in the mornings still won't get out of bed for anything less than a full bottle, then he eats a bowl of porridge. This was why I gave up bf - he refused the night time feed from about 8 months, and still wanted the morning one, but my body couldn't sustain only one feed a day and he got frustrated that there was not enough there in the mornings.

Ds has about 8oz milk from bottles a day, milk on porridge and stirred into meals, and yoghurt. He only takes sips of water/milk from any beaker or open cup.

Thanks for your milk based comments - as always it puts my mind at rest to hear I'm not some crappo mum, especially about the teeth.
Carri I don't think I could wake her if I tried . She's so asleep, her head sometimes flops as if she's been knocked out and DP has been known to hoover in the next room without a stir.

Debi I don't think she's bored of the porridge - we buy Plum in 2 types plus PLum museli and readybrek. She also has oatibix. Apart from the time I stirred fridge cold apple puree into her hot readybrek and she refused it (& I tasted it and realised why she'd refused it, it was totally yuk), she generally enjoys her breakfast.
She isn't a big eater though, so I think it's time for some trial and error at the weekend.