May09 - Christmas is on it's way and Grumpycaaa is comin' to town!!

[essenceofSES]

Hope that works!

Cocktail anyone?!

Evening all, not much done in our household today. Got loads to do tomorrow though, got DD's Christmas Fayre in the evening, and have packing to do DP and me are going away to Edinburgh for the weekend for DP's 30th birthday, and GP's are sitting the children at they're house.

Weaning Seems to be going really well here J loves his food! And even though I didn't go down the BLW route, and started with my homemade purees, weve got so far now! J is 7 months, and I have introduced meat into his diet, he's had chicken, and sausage casserole which he absolutely loved! He's now onto mashed up foods not puree's, and eats pasta and rice, a whole bowl full for dinner, mixed with his vegetables. He's eating toast, sandwiches, banana and rice-cakes as whole foods, and a few veges too. I was frightened at first about offering whole foods, but even though he's got no teeth, he chews the food no problem and eats it all up. He has 1/2 a piece of toast at breakfast with his porridge and a sandwich at snack-time,weve made so much progress, I feel like he's growing up sooo much though

Off to bed for me now, night all X

I should be asleep

S hurt herself today, I think she was attempting to climb out of her carrycot that she had been sleeping in and she's grazed and bruised her fat little thigh .

weaning S loves food but doesn't actually eat much, she is just extremely vocal about trying everything (and woe betide you if you don't let her have some of whatever you're eating). She gets very excited by the sight of spoons and is devoted to framage blanc (which is plain, sometimes sweetened fromage frais, I buy a posh one with vanilla, I'll miss it when I come home) and the milk from DD2's varying chocolat cereals (all the cereals here are chocolate). She just has bits of what everyone else is having or bread if I'm eating something ferociously spicy.

Talkin of S, she is rootling so I'll cut short my gibberish and bid you all bonne nuit, a demain!!

Morning all,

Please stop all the talk of crimbo cards. Haven't even bought any yet will add to my list for trip to town later.

grumps hope S is ok. Climbing out of the carrycot, eh? Pretty advanced stuff!

weaning A is loving food, although we haven't gone much beyond chunks of fruit and veg yet. Have started a little porridge for brekkie which she insists on feeding herself, resulting in spoonfuls of porridge in eyes, up nose, on floor. Am going to step up a bit over the next week or so and start giving her some of whatever we have. Ooh forgot, yesterday we tried breadsticks which were like the best thing ever

Belgina my friend who's lo is 8 months started off with BLW really well then seemed to go off everything. After a couple of weeks he has slowly slowly started eating things again. I think you just have to keep offering stuff and they'll get it eventually.

momi yum turkey pie!

Hi to everyone else, hope all have had decent nights.

Right am off to baby group this morning and then into town to meet a friend for a wander around the shops. She'll be buying lots of clothes and given I don't have any money I'll be fashion advisor I think

Quick post to momi

Morning all. Well, the work meeting yesterday went OK. I was in a bad mood most of the day because I was bricking it, but in the end it was fine, and I realised I haven't forgotten everything and I actually know quite a lot of people on the team. I also had an opportunity to sort out my desk, PC and logon because it would have been forgotten otherwise. So now I can happily forget all about work and enjoy the last few weeks of ML

Nothing to report otherwise. DH is being a twunt, so no change there. This morning he made a sarcy comment about the utility room looking like a bomb site. When I took objection (given that he does nothing in the house. I mean nothing, not even washing up after cooking or tidying up after himself) apparently I was at fault for ruining his morning. Twat. The trouble is he has always been like this, so I don't hold out much hope for him changing. Why did I marry him again..... !

LadyH and Momi G&S was great last night. I am so pleased there is something half decent on TV again. What with The Restaurant and Flash Forward, it's quite good really. Not that I watch a lot of telly, honest

I'm off to visit the German Christmas market in town now. Hope you all have lovely days.x

Morning ladies.

Headless- R must have heard about your sleep training plans at christmas and decided he didn't like the idea of that! What a good boy.

S was pretty good last night. Woke at 12.30 and I gave him a feed, fell asleep with him and returned him to cot at 2.15. He was wide awake at 5, not crying or anything, just awake. DD was awake too (poorly tummy) so I tried a feed to see if he would go back to sleep but he didn't. By 5.45 we were ready for some sleep so we did pick up put down and he was back asleep at 6.10 and slept til 9am. So pretty good really- it was the 2am wakeups that were depriving us of sleep.

runningdonkey- S had a breadstick yesterday and loved it too. He also had a suck on [bad mummy alert] a piece of pizza express pizza that the DCs were having for tea, and loved that too.

parumpatum- sorry to hear your DH is being a again. I hate it when my DH makes comments like that, and usually says something about "what have i done all day" and "mumsnet" . Maybe its about time he has a day at home with 3 DCs and see how much he gets done. grrrr.

Morning!

cards - eek! Need to buy some! DD1 and I started making some this morning, we've just done potato print stars angels, they'll get cut out and stuck onto cards and then I'll let DD1 loose with the glitter....oh, what joy!

of good nights, another shocker here. Both girls were up at 4:30. It improved slightly, bt not much.

parrump... sorry to hear DH is being less than helpful atm. I'd send you best wishes for improvement, but if you think there's no hope then I'll save them. Have a sledgehammer instead.

jael - it does seem like they're growing up so quickly, doesn't it.

I'm going to go to Aldi this afternoon to look for nice European Christmas cake bits. Might be a wasted trip, but at least the girls will both go to sleep as it's quite a long walk!

Hi all

cards DH has had some done for his recent customers with H in his santa outfit. I'll hang on to a few for close family & keepsakes for us/family. But other than that not even thought about them Flippin potato printing sounds fun, I'm looking forward to doing all that stuff with H when he's older.

jael sounds like J is doing brilliantly with his food!

parrump great that your work is sorted and you can forget about it for a while. Boo to your DH though. In this house comments like that are met by 'well, you know where the cloths are!'. Having said that, DH's standards are much lower than mine (and trust me, mine aren't very high!) so he just pretends he can't see the mess . Yesterday morning I had a grump on with him because of little selfish things, like only getting himself a clean towel out (I'd put them in the wash the night before and forgotten to get clean ones out), showing me a juice carton saying 'this one's empty' then putting it back on the worktop, and then washing only his own bowl/mug and ignoring the other few dirty dishes. He doesn't seem to understand why that kind of thing riles me.

Got lots of cleaning to do this afternoon. H has had some kind of tummy bug for a few days which, hopefully, will go of its own accord but until it does I want to make sure everything's squeaky clean.

For the second day in a row, I've got lost trying to find my friend's house. It's embarassing. The worst thing is the look of utter pity on her face for the poor, stupid old lady who can't follow simple directions.

Admittedly, she lives in one of those irritating French hamlets that don't appear on any map and aren't signposted.

She's the friend that is hopefully caring for my dog until the end of Feb, I want poocherella to meet her and have a good sniff about. We might try again tomorrow

Christmas cards Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm I'm a bit crap at sending them

spangle I hope H is better!

DHs I've forgotten how annoying they can be - am a bit worried about us being together all the time again, will we argue a lot?

And S climbing out of her carrycot, she grabs the sides and does 'abs of steel' to try and sit up, I'm guessing she was turning over at the same time and that's how she hurt herself. It's a nasty looking graze and bruise and I have to stop looking at it, my mental state is too fragile and I keep crying about it . I really am pathetic

Grumpy Hehehe at you getting lost. Twice. Tomorrow is another day . I'm sure you will argue with your DH as that's what we do with the ones we love the most but it will be lovely.

DH said to me the other day 'I go to work, rush home to have a fight with you and then go back to work... It's not that bad really he's been a real honey this week and helped out loads with the kids and sat watching TV with me in the evening. It's been lovely. I have bought us a yummy dinner tonight of steak and spinach and new potatoes. I will try to make a creamy mushroom sauce (anyone got a nice recipe??) and I bought a lemon cheesecake too. I have felt so rotten lately but I clearly have my appetite back!!

SIL has a market stall at Portabella Rd Market in London tomorrow selling her paintings so I hope she does well and it doesn't rain on her.

R did really well last night he went to bed at 6.30pm and was asleep with only one quick visit from DH in about 20mins. DD woke crying (2 year old molars I think) at midnight and wouldn't settle with calpol and a cuddle so I bought her in with me as DH was at work. R woke up with all the walking around and called out for a while but gave up when he realised I wasn't getting him up and woke again at 5.45 so I fed him at 6am!! I hope he can make it to 6 without waking tonight.

Must go R doesn't seem to want to nap today so I must go and try feeding him or something.

Her paintings are amazing Febes, I'm sure she'll do well.

grumpy, my opinion is that you really need to come home and get some of us to cheer you up. and don't worry about getting lost twice. i'm sure you'll do it again. In fact, there is a friend of mine in York, I've been to her house about 5 times and I still get lost. every time. she just expects it from me when I come to visit.

tum, grr at your DH. mine was away last night and I really welcomed the silence, being alone.

febes, could I come to yours for tonight's dinner? i think we're having fish. again. (DH works at YOungs, sigh.)

flippin, potato print/glitter sounds great. messy, but great. i really need to get mine doing something like that but instead, I'm on MN for my half hour peace instead of setting up card-making facilities.

ladyH, thanks for the G&S update.

spangle, hope H's tummy is better.

cleaning this after noon... would love to, but how? I'm finding it so difficult to get anything done at the moment. we were out this morning at playgroup and got home for dinner where I fed all but myself and finally sat down in the kitchen at 2pm. then had to get up to get various drinks in between eating my cheese on toast.

good news in my email that I'm not going to london on tues with H for a KIT day. ticket is too expensive so I'm going to the next training day in feb. By then, I'll have H on mixed feeding so will be easier to leave her at home.

can't wait for a friday night glass of wine. I mean glassES.

meant to add that anyone not namechecked, I hope you're well too .

hiya everyone.. still feeling rubbish and in need of a mememe dh rant.. but will have to wait until dc's in bed & i'm on laptop later.. hope you've all had a good day today and that bed and bath times are tear free for us all.. back after dc's in bed.. xoxox

Evening ladies,

grumpy- hope you manage to find your friend tomorrow . third time lucky eh?

christmas cards- I've bought some, but need to write them! Today DD, DS1 and DS2 all got separate personalised christmas cards from my SIL- she really spoils them. She usually spends more on their christmas and birthday presents than we do!

I have been one grumpy mummy today . No sooner had I tidied one room, but another was a mess (3 DCs at home today as DD off school poorly). I am fed up of picking up bits of play food, happyland people, cars...

DS2 cried A LOT before both naps today (i may have got the timing a bit off and he was missing his dummy) and I was starting to get a bit about taking his dummy away. But at bedtime he went down AWAKE and without a murmur - I just sat in the chair as he drifted off to sleep - a first for him .

pula, i've been grumpy as well. hoping you're relaxing now and glad S settled for you at bedtime. as you saw on FB, Harper is just wailing away. she stops then starts again. like she's listening for us. we keep going in on intervals to 'reassure' her. it just sounds like she's overtired.

how do I calm an overtired baby?

anyone else find bedtime stressful? Dd1&2 running around, not listening, H crying, dog barking, girls' bedroom a mess, failing to get the girls in the bath on time, finally in bed for 8, 830- baby still crying...

I've always had low blood pressure but feel like it goes sky high at bedtime.

and... relax

Hi there,

Pula glad S went down well for you tonight. Three kids at home all day does sound very stressful!!

Parp grr at your dh! My dh has started making sarky comments. Wait until I get back to work and have to work every other weekend. That'll show him!!

Momi glad you don't have to go to London next week.

Llare praying for your friend.

Grumpy hope you manage to find your friends tom. Sounds abit like travelling in Africa - turn right at the 3rd paw paw tree!

We've had abit of a crap day here. Went to Bristol by train with my mum, sis, sil and her lo. Journey wasn't too bad, but ds2 really doesn't like his seat on the P&T and screamed on a couple of occasions and we hardly got any shopping done. I got wet walking back to my mum's from the station. My front door key got left at mums so I had to go back there. Ds2 moaned and groaned all evening. Just as Dh and I sat down to our curry ds1 vomited his supper up. Guess who got to clean that up! Thankfully the kids are in bed now. Can you tell who's feeling sorry for herself?!? Sorry for not name checking any further - I'm shattered.

I'm going to try and see my friend on Monday. Apparently it's incredibly easy to find . I'm really embarassed about it, I'm finding my memory and cognitive skills are shot at the moment. Just tiredness and depression I guess. I'll have to cheer up with my huge mug of gorgeous chocolat chaud mmmmmmmmmm.

The S-Meister is 6 months old today. I sang to her, she looked mightily unimpressed.

pula IKWYM vis-a-vie grumpy mum and mess. How do they do it? Good luck with operation dummy - S screams if I even hint at giving her a dummy. DD2 on the other hand, had hers until she was almost 4

momi Sorry, but I'm bigger than you, so I'm roughly shoving you aside to get to Febes' for dinner. We had spag bol. Yum but ho-hum. S liked mashing the spaghetti into her face and hair

Right off to remove a small, furry, purring cuddle machine from DD2's bed as he's biting her toes.

Back again.

Sorry to hear there's so much grumpiness out there. Apart from Grumpy, of course, I am glad she's there.

Well, the christmas cards look ok, but OMG the glitter . DD1 likes it. A lot. I will be finding it for weeks. The cards looked quite classy really, before the glitter - did the prints using paint, let them dry, and cut them out and just stuck either one angel or one star on the front of each card. Then DD1 set to work!

Another nightmare bedtime here. DD1 had a tantrum - yes, again - and screamed so much that she was sick. I hate sick. I really really really hate sick. A was not settling well tonight either, feel like I was feeding her for hours.

A's crawling is fantastic! She's really fast, it's quite scary now. She looks really little still, but boy, can she shift. I'm going to have to baby proof the house, we never did with DD1 because by the time she could move she knew what she could and couldn't touch, and mostly stuck to it. This is a whole new world!

tum Boo @ your DH. My DH is always complaining about the mess in our house, but how can I tidy away things when there is no storage to tidy things away in. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say is that when I came home on Monday after 2 days away, I came home to a house that was even more messy than usual . I can't say how happy that made me. Also nice to hear your work meeting went well.

grumpy I get lost all the time too. Don't worry about it. I see it as a learning journey. That's how I learnt all the short cuts where ever I live I also worry about the day DH will be home more. I'm so used to having the telly/computer all for myself at night. It's going to be hard having to share.

sleep C had a good night last night. Not sure why. Maybe because she had a relaxing day at home with 2 proper naps? But today it went all pear shaped. She didn't nap when she normally naps and then was tired when we had to go out etc... So fingers crossed she'll repeat yesterdays performance. Bedtime in this house are generally fairly relaxing TBH. The dcs brush their teeth, wash and get changed without any complaining, probably because they know that they get a story and cuddles at the end of it all? If they're too slow then the story is cancelled you see. C tends to go to sleep about an hour before the other 2 so she's not in the way of our normal routine.

Momi (love your xmas name btw) I think the best way to calm an overtired baby is to be with them and cuddle them too sleep. It's one of the only times I do cuddle C to sleep because otherwise she just cries more and more and more.

flippin @ the crawling! C only just learnt to roll from front to back today and only because I sort of actively taught her (still wondering why I would want to do that). Good luck with the baby proofing!

We tend to do picture xmas cards so our faraway relatives can see how our dcs change over the years.

grumpy Happy half birthday to S!

Our dinner was some sort of improvised cream with left over chicken and some peas mixed in with pasta. If only I'd known about febes dinner earlier, we could have gate crashed!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm dinner was goooooooood. I had seconds of cheesecake. Off to bed now.

hiya

pulamominoflippinsorry to hear about all the rotten days/nights and tumm my imminent mememe rant is kinda about the stuff you've had from your dh... but will get to that in a mo

flippin amazing with a's crawling but also a pita for you to have to start baby proofing already... we're nearly at that stage too and i'm sooooo not ready!

grumpy i get lost on the way to places i've been to before too... but like belgina it's great for finding all those handy shortcuts

jael have a lovely trip to edinburgh... give it a big wave hello from me

grumpy S climbing out of her cot must have given you a real fright... i hope you have recovered a bit.

spangle how is H's tummy? a bit better i hope...

jinglebelg, thanks so much. i took your advice about cuddling - she's now asleep! took 2 hours for her, bless her.