radical cross stitch, theological debate, Easter bunnies, changing bags,and a baby brother...it must be June 08!

[spongebrainbigpants]

Welcome to our new thread .

Spider will text back shortly!

Sponge just switched channels because I'm sick of Cbeebies, but also DOND is on. And Iestyn loves it, responds so much more than to the children's programmes! He likes all the clapping. Thought you'd appreciate that.

Ktpie you're right about Chester! That's true - I do the occasional 'ho ho ho isn't law hilarious' thing on the radio and that one always comes up.
Thing is, Einion must have been quite high ranking, because any old criminal would have been hanged - too expensive to keep someone prisoner. It's a puzzle. (I also think he got out and went home.)

G&T here has spent 15 minutes sliding my mobile phone up and down a chair arm.

Lol at DOND essie - see I'm keeping very quiet with all the CBeebies talk cos I still don't let A watch it cos the little I have seen of it is so hideously awful I can't bear it!

Not cos I think it will do him any harm but I can't stand more than about 10 mins before I want to throw something at the tv - how you all cope having it on for any longer than that I don't know but I salute you for it !

Oh and watching adult tv will do so much for his development - he's learning how to be a capitalist from watching Homes Under the Hammer and how to be a hero from watching Real Rescues !!

I held off on cbeebies until DS1 was two and I feel really guilty that fraser is watching it at his age. But I do prefer Cbeebies to anything else because I've seen how sensitive DS1 is to things on TV and for the longest time things would really scare him. At least Night Garden isn't scary, just brain melting... (it was just on and Fraser sat there the entire time with his mouth hanging open. bad mother me).

going hope boiler gets fixed soon - we had that last year and it was horrible.

ktpie if it's not a lot of money why not just throw it into a pension account at your bank? Then you don't have to waste time researching it and they normally have several options based on your risk level.

Essie your mystery man is intriguing me now. Why where you looking for Einion in the first place?

spider sorry to hear about your friend.

hugs to everyone...

Neenz - that's interesting about the tax. I am a little clueless with pensions and I hadn't realised that.
Abdn - I've been having a look at pensions online and thinking about just opening one, getting a IFA involved seems like a lot of hassle and perhaps a little unnecessary (I could be wrong on this!). Probably would be better to open it at my current bank but it's Halifax and they have annoyed me recently by upping the overdraft charges and they are closing all three local branches, so I'm a bit loathe to put any more money in there.

Goingto - hope you manage to get the boiler mended, how typical just as the temperatures have dropped.

Essie - now I'm pleased by my historical law knowledge! I seem to think there is something similar to do with shooting Scottish people in York but maybe now I'm talking rubbish. Do you need to make a trip to Pontefract? Would they have any more info there?

Sponge - I record MY favourite Cbeebie programmes on the digibox and we just watch them and miss out the rubbish ones, is that a bit weird? Maybe I have too much time on my hands.
J loves animal park, he kisses the screen when baby animals are on

AH, I wouldn't feel guilty! I used to watch tv when I was little and it hasn't done me any harm !

Do you think Noel might scare A - he scares me? I have a friend who's DD is the same - if she ever catches the news and its something unpleasant/violent she gets quite distressed, and she's only a month older than A. He, on the other hand, takes no notice of the tv at all except to turn it on and off and turn the volume up and down .

ktpie, what is your favourite programme then? The only things I've seen are ITNG and Numberjacks, both of which are awful, so if anyone can point me in the direction of something good I'd be v happy . Alternatively I think I'll just invest in lots of box sets of stuff I used to watch and have a trip down memory lane . Talking of which does anyone know if Sesame Street is ever on UK tv anymore - used to love that and I'm sure A would too, but I've never seen it listed in the schedules.

Sponge - I like Timmy Time, Postman Pat and Postman Pat SDS (although they don't seem to be on at the moment), Something Special (there is a kid at Tiny Talk who learnt all the signs from that, not working on J though, perhaps because I can't be bothered), Bob the Builder, J likes Chuggington and that's not too bad, we also have a load of DVDs the ILs got for him, Thomas the Tank Engine, Fireman Sam etc.
I do quite often put "live" Cbeebies on, I'm not totally mental , J quite likes that thing with all the animals at the farm, with Digger the dog? He also found Big and Small laugh out loud hilarious the other day but I find it irritating.
I used to love Bagpuss when I was a kid so might use J as an excuse to get a DVD of that.
Now I've made it sound like we spend all day sat in front of the TV

J also enjoys turning the TV on and off and messing about with the channels. We put the DVD, video and digibox on the dresser to keep them out of his way but now he goes and fetches a stool to reach up and mess about with them. He also has an obesession with the radio I have in the kitchen and wherever I put it he goes and fetches a chair and pushes it around to climb up and get the radio, little tyke.

Essie - cross posted and now I even more intrigued by Einion. You'll have to keep us posted if you find any more info.

I know - but it's not looking good now, as he wasn't in the list of accounts. Grr.

Essie - If you'd gone to your old threading place you might have bumped into me today. Was it me or was Tooting heaving with not very nice people today?

Sponge - Very old episodes of Seasame street are being released as it's their 40th birthday, but they state not suitable for children due to their content. Will find a link to the article about it. Also did you know it was banned in some Southern American states when it first came out because black and white people played together? And just 40 years later they have a black president, I find that amazing, in a good way obviously.

Chuggington is definitely the favourite here, we actually sky plus it. In the night garden is very disturbing...DH and I have actually got into far too conversations about it (Uppsy daisy is a tart, discuss.).

Neenz, well done on the Beyonce tickets. I love that when you and DH go out, you really go out IYKWIM. I think that's a great idea and can't wait until we have reliable babysitters in NZ so we can do the same. Ironically the entertainment on offer is unlikely to be of the same standard...

OK, DH out tonight so gonna go back a few pages and try and catch up a bit.

sponge sesame street not on any more but you can buy dvds but only in usa - if I get a chance (we have some) and when the king of geek is in I'll see if I can copy you some. I would recommend giving elmo the swerve as he is seriously irritiating (its a spin off for younger kids from sesame street featuring just elmo). Now I have a high tolerance for all kinds of kids tv (a misspent youth) but elmo makes waybuloo and number jacks look like in the night garden. Would agree that something special, big barn farm (thats the thign with the dog on ktpie) and tikkabilla/see and do are the best. But you can pick up cbeebie bumper dvds dirt cheap on amazon/ebay which is what I do then you can skip the shite (whoever cast balamory needs shooting) and watch the better stuff (roly mo/fimbles are popular).

essie einion theory interesting but agree with you re charlie and lola - is the reason that lolas parents always out of shot cos they are too busy on the G&T thread re their little darlings?

and yes we have counting here too but its more the fact that she is a complete parrot at copying you than any deep seated genius (she also copied dh saying bum so I'm not sure where that leaves us).

neenz enjoy beyonce -we are going to deep purple () this weekendas this is one of the perils of having an older husband. Does anyone know WTF they sing or is it goign to be a long saturday night?

Debs how are viewings going -any more news?

spider am so sorry abotu your friend -that must have been a horrible shock.

no news on ttc (period arrived again) but having more acupuncture and off to see gp next week so trying to stay not to dwell on it and frankly failing. Had busy couple of weeks and some pretty intense teething so sympathies to those wtih broken nights/tantrum kids. but the controlled crying does seem to have worked as not so many problems and can be left. she has also been a complete daddys girl which is a bit of a result as apparently I wont do to put her back to bed at night .

right off to try and finish the xmas shopping online...

Hi to every one else rolf ah and anyone I've missed.

pP can;t believe it is so soon-but agree that there is a dark subtext to itng . Also why is chuggington more popular than thomas - I loved thomas so have been desperately trying to brainwashencourage e to watch it?

Sponge - can't find the Sesame street article, but you might like this.

Goingto - Awful about the ladders, seriously too awful to think about.

Sympathies to fellow packers - I am so sick of it am considering just shipping everything or just chucking everything...

Re: eyesight, I have an eye that turns in and was paranoid that I spotted it in Ryder. Poor thing had an eye test at 8 months, but luckily was fine. I wore glasses as a child and once asked about the 'standing near the tv making it worse' thing and the optician said it was rubbish, much to my Mums disgust. Apparently, standing near the tv can be a sign that someone needs glasses (ie: they can't see the screen from far away), but it doesn't actually affect eyesight at all. HTH.

Rolf - LOL at DD1 in her uniform at 11.30. There's a silly parenting tips thread around ATM and one of them is put your children to bed in their uniform to save time in the mornings.

Essie - Wow at the counting. R isn't into talking other than gibberish really. He understands a lot though although that certainly doesn't mean he does as he told, just that he knows what he should be doing.

Spider - Really sorry about your friend, hope that they've caught it in time. And poor P in the stinging nettles.

KTPie - In my previous life I was pensions manager for an investment bank amongst others so unfortunately I know lots and lots about pensions. Depending on when contributions were paid in, if you were in the scheme for less than two years, you may be able to take a refund of your contributions (probably not any that your employer paid in unless it's a very generous scheme). However if it's more recent or you were in the scheme for more than two years, no refund I'm afraid.

Goingto - Hope the boiler is fixed soon and at a good price. We had our annual check last week and were told that because a door latch had broken we would need a new £2000 boiler! DH suggested that the gasman went away and came back 30 mins later the door latch would be fixed and that's what happened. We were so lucky not to get a jobsworth.

Not too worried about TV addiction here, Ry will have to go cold turkey in a few weeks, NZ only has about 3 channels! Agree that Chuggington is a direct rip off of Thomas, but did Thomas have an ice cream van? (WTF!???)

Opps, I mean did Thomas have an ice cream train? Or a flying train? Seriously are all the creators of these shows completely barmy? So many children are going to be so disappointed when they go on South West trains. And whilst I'm, in mid rant, since when was every other character voiced by Lenny Henry?

Think that going to just three channels may be good for me and well as Ryder.

Forgot to say, for non FB'rs, I am now officially unemployed and can't believe that I'm ok with it. Also, got NZ visas yesterday and if AirNZ would just answer my queries have just 11 days left in the UK. Ended up with LA/Las Vegas for our stopover. Ry's first trip abroad and we take him to the city of sin!

Sorry, I will shut up soon, honest. I'm getting fed up of ebay and have three pairs of clarks size 4.5g shoes. Would anyone like them (no cost)?

ktpie I know a wee bit about pensions, though not enough to advise you. There are strict laws about giving pension advice which is why you'd find it hard to find anything on mse or whatever. Whether or not you can get cash back out of your pension can depend on what kind of pension it is, what the rules of the scheme are as set by the trustees, and in some cases legislation (which I guess is what the age thing is about). In some cases you can get a refund of your contributions (but not employer contributions) and you have to pay whatever tax relief you got on them. With regards to writing to them to get your money back, I suspect (but couldn't say for certainty) that there'll only be some discretion if it's a defined benefit/final salary type pension governed by trustees, and that you'd only get back your contributions - which could be a lot less than the current transfer value.

Obviously I can't give you any advice on what pension to take out, but if you aren't going to keep putting money in it, you should pay attention to the fees charged. FYI stakeholder pensions have low fees (I think that's because of legislation).

On the tv front, I did read somewhere that cbeebies is better than other tv (in a lesser of evils kind of way ) because they have to do so much to make sure it's age appropriate etc. But, for e.g a Disney blockbuster just needs to be enjoyable and generate millions of dollars in merchandise revenu . I seem to recall when teletubbies first came out there was loads of child psychologists on tv defending it. I'll take any excuse to appease my tv guilt though! S's favourites are big barn farm, chuggington, waybuloo, timmy time and ITNG. Obviously he doesn't see them all everyday! I hate hate hate gigglebiz!

Sorry, after all that pension stuff I've forgotten what else I was going to post!

Crikey, did my pension ramblingss scare everyone away...

Wonder pets people, wonder pets. They are much better than bloody itng and very education

When we took the older two dc to paris a couple of years ago we saw the eiffel tower and asked them if they knew what it was called. They both knew immediately. When we asked them how they both pointed out that it is in 'wonder pets save the french poodle'. Then we went to the louve and saw the sphinx. Both dcs then really impressed the older british couple next to us by telling us what it was called and that the sphinx has the head of a man and the body of a lion. (they were 5 & 3 at this point). After the couple had moved on dh asked them how they knew that. Apparently it was in wonder pets save the camel. See. wonder pets are practically home educating them!

DS1 was scared of the numberjacks numbertaker for a while so I'd steer clear of that program for people if you're not sure. Also "Come Outside" terrifies him because that stupid dog Pippin gets lost every episode and he gets upset.

We've DVDs of Thomas which I agree are really age appropriate. So is Big Barn Farm and Big Cook Little Cook. And my favourite show is Little Red Tractor!!!

Me Too and Balamory just annoy me and I think Space Pirates is crap.

I am totally against Pop Shop though and have thought of writing a letter of complaint about the way the female presenter is dressed (skin tight jeans, very high heels, and too much makeup). It's not a look appropriate to daytime TV and I think it sends an inappropriate message to little kids.

Essie - is there likely to be any info about Einion anywhere else? I've no idea about likelihood of documents from that era surviving. This history thing is very exciting!

PP - glad someone else has a digibox thing full of recorded kids TV!

Poppy - Big Barn Farm, that's the one! Not too pleased with the finishing Christmas shopping comment! I haven't got anything and my master plan to make loads of presents as usual has failed, mainly because I have been totally sidetracked by knitting some socks (why? I have socks! DH thinks I have lost the plot, probably right), but they are strangely compelling to knit. Perhaps they could be Christmas presents?

I find Lola too irritating to watch Charlie and Lola, although we did happen upon the Lauren Child exhibition when it was on at Nottingham Castle and that was good fun, although J slept all the way round it (I enjoyed it).

PP - will try and stop worrying about the TV watching!

Thanks for the pension advice PP and BDQ, I love the fact you can ask questions about random topics and someone on here knows! I'd probably been in it for a bit more than 2 years.
Going to have a bit more of a look at it today and probably harass the finance guy at work with some emails, he is usually pretty helpful with these things and I think he is one of the pension trustees.

Sybil - I haven't seen wonderpets, will look out for it.

Abdn - I caught Pop Shop accidentally the other day and was a bit concerned about the size of stillettos Carrie was wearing to jump up and down really high, made me worry for her ankles!

I'm pleased as the post has just come with a Toqz outfit for J that I got from ebay, it's in perfect condition and he loves it, has been running round the house in it, until he got a bit warm!

Toqz = Togz!

Morning, sorry to post and run, have to go and register M's birth.

Can anyone help me with this?

Quick post while at work...

PP on pensions - does the 2 year rule apply to the older style final salary type pensions? We have one at work (closed to new members) and I thought we were quite keen to have any leavers get a refund on their own contributions as it's better for the pension pot overall? I know the 2 year rule applies to our defined contribution pension scheme though.

Sponge S always ignores us if he doesn't want to do what we ask, although at the moment if we tell him 'no' to something his favourite trick is to find the nearest corner and bury himself in it whilst crying loudly. A's behaviour sounds pretty normal to me. I like the suggestion that you should ask the nursery what they've done with other toddlers in the same situation.

to everyone else.

Hiya all - just checking in (for the first time in 6 months or so), but saw DebInAustria's post about 17 month old children not listening and not doing what they're told.

Tom is understanding more and more what I say, and am getting increasingly frustrated. Ask him to come towards you, and he will automatically turn in the opposite direction and run away. The other day, a neighbour knocked on the door with Tom under his arm and asked whether he belonged to me blush. So embarrassing - the garden door had come unlatched and he'd gone for a wander in the road - thank god he wasn't run over.

In response to the post, I don't think there's anything one can do with a determined toddler desperate for world domination independence apart from locking them in a cupboard (only joking hmm)!!

Any other thoughts? How are your little devils darlings getting on?