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

[spongebrainbigpants]

Welcome to our new thread .

Fingers crossed on the go go hamsters!

Puree, is everything ok? I see on fb that you're a bit cross with MN?

puree fine (saw her and her lovely dh, lovely dog and gorgeous dd for lunch today) but there is some kind of tech hitch on posting on mn for her -she has been waiting a week and still no fix so is understandably pissed off.

thanks for all the good wishes -feeling lot more cheery now thanks to a nice weekend. Hope all the various poorly folk feel better and whinegums move went ok.

bdq iphones are the best - I love mine (if you want tips on the prog that lets you upload dvds onto it let me know - have found that invaluable when out and about with e).

sybil I work in central london if that is any use to you and you need someone to hunt out a hamster for you - hate the idea of your poor dd going without...

right back to I'm a celeb (am still half shocked/not surprised re x factor tonight).

Sybil I can cover several large Tescos and a couple of Asdas in north Wales! Also Debenhams (going there tomorrow as it happens) but not great on large department stores or toy stores here. But we are behind the times so maybe nobody has realised that they're the must have hamster.
My e-mail is on p. 3 or so.

Hi guys, feeling a little better physically, but thoroughly pissed off otherwise. Had MIL up today and after a lovely day she had a full on sulk cos we have said we're not coming down for Christmas. I don't care what anyone thinks I'm not putting an 18mth old and a 2mth old (who's sooo tiny he hardly fits in his car seat properly) into a car for a two hour journey on Christmas Eve, packing up two travel cots, a steriliser, a double buggy, etc, etc, etc) and cope with sleepless nights and staggering round a strange house trying to sort night feeds, to go and spend Xmas with them, when they could pack one suitcase and do the return journey and if they get stuck in traffic they won't have two screaming children to contend with .

Plus, her clinching line was that SIL will be at theirs for xmas and she "really wants us all to be together". Yes, this is the same SIL who has barely seen A since he was born. So angry and dh is so upset which is also making me angry .

Right, rant over, must go to bed.

Spider - glad you avoided the sickness.

Sybil - good luck with the hamsters!

Sponge - that is unreasonable of your MIL. Not surprised you are angry.

My ILs are coming over today for a few days to help with the decorating so you might not hear from me for a bit.

It's been chucking it down here, and it seemed to be dark for a lot longer this morning. We are meant to be going to the library this morning to a Rhyme and Roll thing, also have some books to take back so we really should go, I've just realised that I still haven't got round to getting a rain cover for the pushchair, will put J in his raincoat, not ideal as he has a cold at the moment. Feeling like a bad mother already.

Sponge stick to your guns. AS soon as ds1 was born I refused to go to anyone else's house for xmas on the basis that kids should be able to enjoy xmas in their own home. Now no one even tries to get me to shift

Many thanks for the go go hamster offers. We have got hamster but no accessories. If anyone does happen to see a funhouse/car/sleeping bag etc please think me. My email is rainbowladybird at hotmail.com should anyone manage to find one of this rare beasties!

sorry that should be rainbowladybird at hotmail.co.uk and I will obviously reimburse all costs with heartfelt thanks!

Hell, Sybil, if I find any hamsters anywhere I will buy them up and sell them on! (It looks like they're sold out around here, btw.)

You can make a killing on ebay if you do essie, they are selling for at least twice their price on there at the moment!

I'm back, all the relatives have gone home, we've had different members of family staying for about the past 6 weeks so it's now really nice to be on our own again but Tristan cried last night because Nanny and Grandad were going home. Stefan's had some sort of fight with a tree at school and come home with his face a real mess, and Ethan is clingy, so, so clingy. All I hear is Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama from morning till night.

Sponge - you must stay home for Christmas, I order it.

sybil, will look for hamster stuff here .

deb nice to have you back! Sorry the boys all seem out of sorts though!

sponge you should def stay home on Xmas day if that's what you prefer. We always had Xmas at home because my p's didn't think kids should be traipsed about (away from their new toys) on Christmas day. Mind you, they still refuse to go anywhere else .

We went to my p's last year and are going to the I laws next year. I keep telling DH that we're staying at home next year (his family ALL get together at Xmas, we're the only ones that don't go every year) but tbh I kind of like Chistmas visiting (and the lack of washing up ) so isuspect that for the forseeable future we'll do turns about!

Sybil I'll keep an eye out for hamster stuff for you. The Christmas crazes are unreal aren't they? How old is your DC again?

Not much else to report here. Been out at Jo jingles and to the park (S was asleep by the time we got to the park, woke up when we left!); I'm now having a cuppa while S gorges on cbeebies .

Glad the Spider household is feeling better and thanks for the purée update poppy and yes please tell about DVD things and any othe cool iPhone bits n pieces!

Sybil Very pleased my girls haven't asked for the hamsters - if they do I will point them in the direction of our real hamster!

sponge completely understand that you want to stay at home for christmas.
They year before last we were planning to stay at home and go to inlaws for boxing day. They kept pressurising us to go to them on christmas day. Managed to say no until MIL rang dp on christmas eve and he gave in. I was so cross with him! We were up so early, MIL said we had to go to thiers at 11 as they were eating at 3. When SIL arrived she asked her what time she wanted to eat, she had lied to get her own way! Then she asked SIL what time she was going to her SIL on boxing and she said nothing had been confirmed yet MIL had told us they were going at 9am so we wouldn't be able to see them> I was really angry then! It was such a tense and horrible hour, I made sure we didn't say a minute longer than agreed. AS dp and I had hardly slept as we were so cross and the girls got up at 4.30am we fell asleep about 1pm and were far to tired to make christmas dinner and ended up having fish fingers and chips!
Last year we did go to PIL's for the whole day as my childrens only cousins were there and they now live in Oz. I'm already feeling stressed as I know they are going to insist on spending some of christmas day with us and I just do not want too! DOn't mind boxing but just not christmas day!

Ktpie Thanks for asking about the shoot. DD did very well but ds wasn't at all impressed. We had been there a few hours by the time they tried taking his picture, by that time he had usually had and woken up from his nap but I just couldn't get him to sleep as he was so excited being somewhere new. They did put some gorgeous clothes on him though.

Welcome back Deb

Sorry to hear about all the Christmas stresses. I tend to do the Christmas hostessing here as my Dad wouldn't be able to do it and my brother's family are vegetarian, which I have no problem with save for Christmas day . I have asked them over to ours but haven't heard back as i suspect they are having the same conversations about me that you lot are having about your in-laws . And that's everyone. DH's family live thousands of miles away. MiL has mentioned that she might fly over and whilst it would be lovely if she did, she says it every year and never comes. I don't blame her - she has lots of grandchildren who live much closer to her, and we'd probably all have more fun together if we met up at another time of year.

Our house is a building site. It's revolting. We had plasterers in at the weekend so had to get up and out quite early, and although we had a good time it was kind of tiring, having to stay out all day. We're having work done on the brickwork outside, which means awful noise and dust. Our poor neighbours are being very nice about it but I do feel badly for them. Everything in the house is covered in a layer of plaster dust. I can feel it on my hands and have got it in my eyes so have red-rimmed piggy eyes. I have a head cold and Thea slept badly last night, so I'm not really at my best.

Rolf - hope the work is completed soon on the house , and fingers crossed that Thea sleeps well tonight

Going2, are your pil's local? Could they come to you for a Christmas brunch or something? Then kick them out and put your feet up!

BDQ - I wish Ethan would start to take an interest in the TV He has all the right actions, sits in the best viewing position on the settee, remote control in hand flicking through the channels but as yet we've not found anything that seems to interest him. Had to bribe him with Cheerios tonight to keep him quiet for the last bit of Dr Who!

Ooh, wasn't Dr Who good Deb?

I'm going through one of my mad panics about S's weight again and I know there are a lot of teenies on here so hoping for some reassurance!

As I've mentioned once or twice S was on the 75th centile a birth and was somewhere around the 9th by age 1. He started dropping centiles from about 6 months when he started weaning. Lately, he's not been eating much at all (apart from breakfast when he has two full size weetabix). He'll have a wee bit of his lunch, but we're struggling to get him to have any of his tea at all! He's not a big snacker so it's not that. He pretty much refuses to go in his highchair too (again, apart from breakfast). I've seen a couple of mum and baby friends over the last few days too - S used to be same height or taller than the babies and now he's much skinnier and shorter than them. Any thoughts/suggestions/reassurances very welcome!

BDQ Fraser's the same, 9lbs at birth and now below the 9th centile. I think he might be 9kg now, if he's eaten and not had a poo! We're also in a non-eating stage too, he is just not hungry at this point in his growth. But we went through it with DS1 too and he's fine and growing at the same rate as other kids now. (He's still about 5cm shorter but at leeast he's not losing ground).

BDQ - I haven't had Thea weighed for months and months but I think she is quite small. She has only one baby friend (I am such a crap mother ) who is apparently low on the weight centiles, and Thea is significantly smaller.

Doctor Who was brilliant wasn't it? We were so excited about it. DH wasn't in - he had to go to London, which was a shame, but I got the girls to bed in super-quick time and the boys and I cuddled under a duvet and hid our eyes at the scary bits. They said that it was the talk of the playground today, and everyone admitted to being terrified. I thought the monsters were amongst the scariest yet. It's such good TV and makes me so happy that it's come at the perfect time for my boys - it's going to be a big part of our happy memories .

I was very quiet the other week when you were all talking about CBeebies as Thea doesn't watch TV at all. It's just something I never got around to doing with her, nor with DD1. I couldn't decide if I should feel smug or foolish, but it was decided for me today when, for the first time in years, I felt so knackered and crappy today that I put the TV on at about 10am and Thea and I had a lovely lazy morning in front of it. Can't believe I didn't do it earlier!

Hi, thought I'd drop in because I keep posting really short posts, not responding or anything nice or polite!
I'm back in Wales after a lovely week in London (boy, did I need that break!), but with a sad ending, because I met up with Penguin and the gorgeous Ryder on the Friday and it suddenly hit me, as we were saying goodbye, that it was goodbye for quite a while.

Rolf the building work sounds annoying...but everyone, don't say anything about Dr Who - I haven't watched it yet! I was going to watch it tonight, but there's a programme about Enid Blyton on and I'm (ahem) a real fan.

BDQ I think Iestyn is smaller than average - he always has been. (An interlude - Abdn 9lb at birth? But that's massive! ) He was playing with Luke , Cecily and Ryder and Iestyn was definitely the smallest, but Luke is really tall. I haven't actually had him weighed since he was 1, but he wasn't 20lb then. He's still in 9-12 month clothes. But he also has small hands and feet, so is just a small package all round.
But BDQ I'm glad you mentioned the eating, and also Abdn's response. I mentioned last week (in response to Sybil) that Iestyn doesn't seem to eat as much - I like Abdn's comment that at this point they just don't need as much. These days he's happier throwing snacking on pieces of bread than eating a proper meal. He does eat though, but not as much as he used to. Like Neenz I used to worry about the sleep/eating connection, but I agree he seems to sleep whether he's had 1 chunk of cheese or a roast dinner.
Ooh, this is getting long...

Sponge hope you get better soon - and I'd stay at home if I were you. Put your foot down! Our current stress is London vs Wales. We're usually in London as DH is an out-of-hours organist (midnight Christmas, 4.30am Easter...) but this year my Mum suggested we stay here. I'm torn now - it would be lovely but I would miss London.

Final note on tv - Iestyn doesn't get any tv here in Wales because the tv is in the other room. At my Mum's, he gets his Spot the Dog dvd (which he loves although he's scared of the very angry cat ) and occasionally tv if he's tired. In London, though, he had loads of TV but because it was in front of him. It's interesting, though - he doesn't 'do' English at the moment so goodness knows what he gets out of it.

Must go, Enid is starting in a minute.

BDQ you could have been describing C with what you wrote about S, down to the weetabix! also tiny here, we weighed her the other week, and she was still under 9 kg (hmm feel like a bad mummy now as she's firmly in a front facing car seat)we met up with my friend with a six month old today - he weighs more! and as for feet... still a size 2! I'm not worrying about it, she looks fine, she's growing and she's full of energy!

rolf glad you had a lovely time with cbeebies!

Essie you'll have to tell me if it's good - I am off to bed at DH's urging but I do love Enid Blyton so I was tempted to stay up!

And 9lbs was nothing compared to deb! How big was Ethan again? Was he the biggest on the thread?

essie thanks for the reminder about the enid thing!

ohh, yes we're still in 9-12 months too. it's a shame for C's little cousin as the hand-me-downs are running out - she's caught up and is likely to take her over soon!

They all seem to be going through a not eating phase then? Maybe it is a developmental thing.

BDQ J is also worst at teatime and we struggle to get him to eat much, if anything. I try to feed him with the other kids in the hopes that seeing them eat will help but its not helping hugely. Tonight was the best night in ages and all he had was 6/7 pieces of penne pasta and half a sausage in a tomato sauce. Penne pasta is quite big though right? and sausage is really filling... see, the lies that mummies tell themselves! He also has never tolerated a highchair. He eats on a lap and always has done.

Thank you all so much for the reassurance!! How funny viva about C and her weetabix. I feel so much better knowing that there are some other teenies on here. I think I got so freaked out because all the other same age babies round here have overtaken S so much in terms of height and weight, even though he was bigger to start with. Anyway, feel much better thanks to you all. I think we're going to give up eating together for the time being and feed S a bit earlier as soon as we get home to see if that makes a difference.

Oh, and sorry for revisiting the weight thing - bit of a wobble yesterday!

Essie you must watch Dr Who soon, it was fab!