Fab Feb 2009 - 9 months in, 9 months out, now they're sitting, standing and crawling about

[TheHAUNTEDHouseofMirth]

Here we go again!

It was lucky your Ex was in the right county MOS!

mos We have tamborines, bells on sticks, xylophone(sp?), and good old wooden spoons and saucepans and we have a music afternoon at least once a week when dp's on days (unless he pisses me off!) and the 3 of us really enjoy it. I've always done it with Jacob as I was brought up around lots of music, my Dad plays piano, flute, saxophone, guitar and we used to sit around singing alot. \i have tapes somewhere of me and my bro singing you are my sunshine, my bonnie lies over the ocean and so on.
My Dad wanted to buy Jacob a little drum kit last year. I said no to that, but this year I have got him a little keyboard which was a bargain at £20 (I found a really good sale in a toy shop in Staines)
drinky PITA hey? The joke is, they knew the snow was coming and still did sweet FA. Your poor ds1.

Mwah! Merry Christmas to you all. I have mostly ben AWOL from this thread, apologies, it fell off my 'Threads I'm On's.

New Year's Resolution to be better. And to see some of you guys in 2010.

Can I call you over here with some boxing gloves on?

welcome back stranger
ref MS's thread, been there, stuck my oar in got slagged off

Awww, MOS, were you being unreasonable?

Are you in the land of honey roast ham for Crimbo?

swampy I'll have you know that I'm never unreasonable
My thread was about BA cabin crew (twunts). Was rather pissed off to say the least due to their stupid strike as we were booked to come back 27th. When it looked like it wasn't going to happen (ie the flights) we were advised by our travel agents that if we had to get back (which we did as DC1 and 2 would be waiting for me on 28th) we should make alternate arrangements. We therefore spent £1,500 on Emirates flights and now the arses aren't going on strike [aagghh]

We will be in KSA for Crimbo but back to UK 27th. Leaving pm on boxing day (my birthday) so might just squeeze in a glass/bottle of wine at Dubai airport on our way back as have a 3 hour stoppover there.

p.s.
DD staggered into my bedroom this morning having just woken up and rubbing her eyes saying 'I've got pixie skids in my eyes'! err, I think she meant 'pixie dust'!

Lol at your DD MOS. Glad you have flights now but still shocked by everything you went through to get them

Ouch Drinky! Hope bruises go soon x Horrible slippy ice crust snow here, only a cm so nothing for the kids to play with!

What a lovely Secret Santa LBB, your gift ideas sound good. May I suggest some earplugs for you too

Poorly bairnes today, supposed to be going to the local animal/play farm for Christmas lunch and to see Santa (and the reindiators ) tomorrow but I think they will still be poorly

Mwah Swampster and Spotty - lovely to see you lesser spotted ladies. Have gone over to MS's thread to stick my oar in - kickboxing kit at the ready... LOL at your dd2 MOS.

Hope your little ones get better soon Spotty. Would be a shame for them to miss the reindeiators.....

Took the boys to go see Charlie & Lola my bestest bestest play ever yesterday and they both loved it - if you have a little C+L addict I definitely recommend it if it will be showing anywhere near you... then my sister and her boyfriend came round last night to cook us dinner and do early xmas presents. All quite lovely - until danny decided to start the day today at 4.30.... yawn

drinky There's a cardboard cutout of Lola in waterstone's in Staines, everytime we walk past, Jacob runs in to give her a kiss and says "heeoo Lola" Very sweet

Pixie skids sounds more appropriate! Bummer about the flights.

This week I was out for a drink on Wednesday night, out for a meal on Thursday night and out at my office Christmas party on Friday night.

It was DH's Christmas party so I dragged the DSs along with me to show them off. They enjoyed the bus ride and seeing the big Chrismas tree in Trafalger Square.

The party was at a posh London club and we arrived to be told "No children under 13"! Luckily my boss is very persuasive.

Yesterday we all woke up late, played a bit, I fell asleep again with DS3. Woke up and it was 11 am and no one had had breakfast!!! DS1 and DS2 were downstairs watching telly and helping themselves to dried mango. There's initiative!

Drinky, I seem to remember you suggesting meeting for a drink around Farringdon sometime before I went AWOL. It would be lovely but I don't tend to spend much time there. I'm in the office then I'm running back to pick up Monster 1 from school and relieve my friend who is looking after Monster 2 and Monster 3... But in January I'll probably be working Fridays and might be around there for slightly longer periods of time.

Good to see you guys piling in the scrum for MS.

yay, A slept from 9 til 12.30 and then went straight back to sleep until 7am last night such a relief as he's been sick for weeks and not sleeping properly at all.

and we have SNOW!!!!!! lots of it, and more still coming down. poor kids were frozen solid after 5 mins out in it

hopefully the snow means our frineds who announced he's coming to visit today won't be able to get a bus (this is the same friend who came before last xmas and refused to get a bus earlier in the day on the day of our friends xmas party so we had to come home early from it to drop him to the station... he's a pain in the arse and i'm dreading him coming up)

school fair is today, wonder if it's still going ahead as the hill the community centre is on a hill that's a total nightmare in this sort of weather.

I hasn't been right for about a week and his temperature and screaming got pretty bad yesterday so spent hours waiting at the walk in doctor's centre. he was diagnosed with an ear infection and suspected swine flu.
it was my work's party last night but i was tucked up in bed listening to him coughing away by 10pm!

seems a bit better today but over the last few days the temperature and real unhappiness kick in mid afternoon so fingers crossed it won't today.

mos at least you're going go make it back, the expense is hideous but you had to make that call at that time. hopefully you'll have a lovely time with the kids and it will all seem worth it.

dinky hope you've recovered from your fall.

lbb i'm so happy you were part of the secret santa thing. you deserve it and i hope the boys love their elc stuff.

pt hope A is getting better and all the dcs are enjoying the snow.

hello to everyone else. hope you're all well.

kbn Poor I. Hope he gets better quickly.

I've just spent the past 30mins doing hand and footprints in clay with the boys for my parents xmas pressies.
Why is it any planned activity that's supposed to be fun end in stress? Jacob had the cookie cutters so has made an umberella, a bear, a dinosaur and some stars in clay that he will decorate with paint and glitter when they dry, I have Jacob's foot and hand rints, 2 of Lukes and that's what my parents and my brother are getting this year. Although I did also get one of those insert your own photo's calenders for my parents too and have filled them with pics from this past year.
They'll prob think I'm a right tight wad, but I can't do it. I haven't told dp that for the stuff I have bought, there won't be enough in his bank to pay the mortgage this month.
Thankfully, his timesheet for xmas week with all the overtime come to 113hours for the week, so we'll be back on track in Jan (fingers crossed)

KBN oh poor you and I. I hope he gets better very soon and what a shame you missed your christmas party.

PT/TAT yay at A sleeping and your snow. Very jealous of that as DD hasn't seen any. No doubt by the time we get back NEXT WEEK it will all be mush

H has been sleeping a bit better the last week or so. We had been co-sleeping but it just wasn't working as he was waking every hour for a 2 min scoff. Think it was the smell. He is therefore now in his cot in his room and as we have a double bed in there too DH sleeps in with him. I feed him to sleep then we plop him in his cot and he normally sleeps through til early hours and sometimes DH gets a bottle into him, even just a few sips and he goes off. Usually my services are required by around 4am but at least I'm getting 100% more sleep now than previously

LBB what will your DP say about the mortgage? Hope everything works out. 113 overtime sounds an awful lot.
I do admire you for all the 'fun' stuff you do with the boys. I'm terrible at doing stuff like that with DD (never really did it with DC1 and 2 as was pretty much working full time from when they were around 3 months old so they did it all at nursery) I feel quite guilty at times but I'm just so rubbish and not artistic. I did sit down with DD a few days last week and we made Christmas cards (cut up last years and stuck those and stars on pink paper!) and might try to make christmas crackers over the next few days.
I'm sure your parents and brother will love their home made presents. My mum used to love getting photos of the kids for Christmas and birthdays.

Feels really odd not buying any presents for her this year. I've set up a memorial page with GOSH and have donated on there instead and I was reading a story in a womans magazine and read about a little boy who is seriously ill and needs to go to the USA for potentially life saving treatment and they are fundraising so DH and I donated £50 to that as well. Terrible that you have to find huge sums of money to try to save your children's lives.

Hope everyone is doing ok x

mos Dp's getting paid triple time for xmas day, so once all that's taken into account, that's why the overtime sounds like loads. And let's not forget that he takes a dvd to work incase there isn't much on, he often comes home with handfuls of change from playing ards and sometimes when I phone him during the day when he's at work, he gets he ump because I've woken him!!!
I'm hoping i won't need to spend too much over and that I can pay some money back in when my child benefit has been paid and it'll be before the 1st. Should be ok, but at the end of the day, he can say what he likes, we have to eat and ok, I have had 3 nights out this month, but I never go out, it's not like we're in debt with anyting but my overdraft which is £300 so it's not like we're about to drown iyswim. (who am I trying to convince we'll be ok)

The clay stuff could have been better, I could have taken more time with it, but not really when Luke tries to eat it and Jacob is throwing the stuff around.

I'm sure your mum is pleased and proud with the money you have donated

Hello

Thanks for your help on my thread. Sorry I haven't been around much lately.

fucking hell.... that was a bloody stupid idea!

i had to be pushed up the hill by my friends brother as i got stuck on ice, parked in what i thought was a clever spot, had a painful hour queueing for Santy with A freaking out, ds1 eating sweets off the floor and dd whinging and then came out and got stuck again trying to turn my car and had to be pushed by some school kids after half an hour of me and my friend trying and failing to free the car

and dd has to be dropped to the same hall tomorrow am for school play rehearsal

LBB TRIPLE TIME! Wow, that is pretty good but a pain that he won't be home with you and the boys. Hope he is not working all day on xmas day. Hope it works out ok. I guess we are all a little bit skint at this time of year. I am now thanks to farking BA

PT/TAT sounds like a bloody nightmare. Wonder if there will still be snow next week when we are home? Might be nice for DD

mos yeah. WE figure it'll probabl be the last year he can do it for next year Jacob will know what's going on. He doesn't have a clue this year! But because we were a bit tight and I didn't know how much I could spend on them, we haven't really made a fuss about it iyswim.
Dp is working 6 til 6 xmas day, but me and the boys are going to my mums xmas eve and dp'll collect us when he finishes xmas day. The 4 of us will have our xmas day on boxing day. The boys will get their pressies from us and we'll have a nice family day then.

I know the snow is a massive PITA for many reasons, but doesn't it bring back the memories of early feb and lots of these babies being born? I remember getting in the car that tuesday morning and driving really slowly, then getting out at the hospital and nearly falling over in it!
Jacob was born the hottest day of the year in '07 and Luke was born in the snow early '09. Lovely, complete opposites to match their personalities.
Not sure what to do today.......

LBB oh gosh, I remember that really snowy day when it seemed that loads of the girls on our thread were trying to get to hospital and were having a nightmare.
Like you say, the kids won't know which day is actually Christmas day anyway. We are having Christmas here but then doing another Christmas on the 28th when back in the UK with DC1 and 2. (just hoping I can track down a turkey when I get back on the 27th)

Was starting to feel a bit christmassy this morning when I wrapped up the DCs presents then went for a walk to the shop and it was really warm and sunny. Felt odd. Just seen a notice about a carol service on christmas eve (our weekend which is nice) and also there is a 'mass' here on the compound that day too. Hopefully that will put us in a festive mood. Was going to try to make mince pies but can't get mincemeat at the moment. Sods law it was in all the shops in the summer!

IIRC it was the 2nd and 3rd. I went into hospital on the 3rd and know I def read about swampy having probs, that may have been the day before.
On the morning of me going in I was really sick! Must have been the nerves, and then because we hd to stay in for a few days because of the strep, MrsCY text to make sure we were both ok. That was nice

I just don't want Ashley to miss the best part of being a parent, watching their faces when they get their pressies, although he says he's not bothered. Ignorrant twat!

Re getting a turkey, can you do an online shop and get it delivered?

I'm finding it quite hard to get into the christmas spirit really. Just can't be arsed. How bad is that!

Morning all. Last day at work and having a shocker but thought would pop on quickly to say

• KBN - huge hugs to you and I. Poor little man. Hope he recovers really quickly now he has meds and is back to his usual sunny self.

• LBB - the gifts for your parents sound lovely. Yes, doing crafts with kids is stressful but they love it and that's the key - I find if you embrace the chaos and mess life is so much better Hope cash situation isnt as dire as it sounds and you get to have a nice relatively stress free xmas. And I think doing xmas on boxing day with DP is lovely - the boys get an extended celebration. We used to do this with my parents when dad was working on xmas day.

• MOS - I bet there will be loads of turkeys on offer in the supermarkets on the 27th - it'll be fine.

• Tulips - v jealous at A's sleeping. Danny's is still truly horrendous due to evil teething (and now stinking cold - DS1 has the same cold too - have lost count of how many they've had in the past few months) and meds dont seem to be touching the sides. He's also gone off his food due to teething and is currently living on yoghurt, milk and mashed banana sucked off toast fingers. Truly pitiful to see our little gourmet baby picking his non-mushy food up piece by piece and deliberately dropping it on the floor as its too painful to try to eat... Oh well, will be all worth it when he has more gnashers to attack his grub with..

• Swampster - I like your eldest boys style. Hmm, dried mango.. drool..

Jan Evening Meet Up - who can do 4 *Jan in the evening? Been in touch with Nkweto on facebook and she can make it hopefully.

All the reminiscing about snowy February days is making me really teary.

We had a cab booked for 7.30 am on the 2nd, elective CS booked. Cab didn't make it, was getting ready to have my first natural birth, grateful that lovely neighbours include a doctor and a vet. Figured the vet would probably be more handy to have around.

In the end FIL managed to get us to hospital in his little Noddy-car. We sat around from 11 am to 4 pm not knowing if anything would happen or not, they were worried they wouldn't have the staff to care for people the following day.

Bagged the last CS before they cancelled them for the foreseeable. Had the most AMAZING care ever as they had loads of volunteers in to help - a retired midwife/midwife trainer, lovely unjaded student midwives... And I had a ward to myself all night and could play my ipod through the speakers (not a fan of headphones).

I get my dried mango bulk delivered by a lovely company called Tropical Wholefoods. I buy it by the kilo! Downside is the boys get hold of the container and presto, there is only half a kilo left. Upside is long lie-ins.

LBB good idea about getting it all delivered, can't be arsed to go out in the cold. We were going to do a huge food shop online but then with BA buggering us around we didn't. Hopefully we will be able to get a slot on the 27th,

dinky where exactly is the suggested meet up place? Will check with DH what our plans are that day (and make him cancel any he has made) but just wondered what area we would be heading for. DS will have gone back to his boarding school the day before but DD will be at home still so can baby sit perhaps whilst DH drops me off