Jan 2009...'twas the thread before christmas, soon the babies turn one, the years been quite busy, pass the red wine to mum.

[SherryMerryLennipillar]

Merry Christmas babies

Hello people. Spent £50 we really haven't got on shoes for dd1. Had to be done. IS now an amazing c fitting, so have to spend the money. CHeaper ones flap about on her like wellies!!

Poor Isla. That does sound frightening . Hope the appointment tomorrow will help you Dog.

I've just found a great site for indoor activities for children. We went to the maritime museum in Greenwich yesterday, which was fab!

We all have colds and are feeling grumpy and sorry for ourselves so I've just made a big batch of crumpets to munch with Nutella. A big help!

Tree that is so fantastic about your tree range chick growing!

I fell asleep settling dd2!

oh no tree. tis a sign you should go to bed yourself. now. this instant!

Dog, I let them cool and re-toast them, mainly because I like to make them in the evening when the babies are settled (I find watching the bubbles appear very soothing!). I don't use rings so mine are flattish, about the size of scotch pancakes. I can do four at a time in my big griddle pan, and they take 5 mins per batch, so its pretty quick; the recipe makes 20. I make the flour/yeast/milk/water mix before I start supper and then they are ready to go as soon as the babies are down. By the way, don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but they are just as nice with 5g salt instead of the 10g in the recipe. If you store them when cooled in a sandwich bag in the bread bin, they are fine for a few days (however, mine have yet to last more than 24 hrs ).

sorry. meant to say hope Arlo better now. Got a bit carried away with the crumpets! I love making them and think everyone should have a go! link to recipe again here

Drool at home made crumpet.

Get well soon babies!! And eat and get some chub on! We have that wish here too dog, so I know how you are feeling.

I can't go to bed, I'm starving. There is nothing we want to eat though. Bah!

Just been looking at lovely kids shoes on M&S site, for blooming £22. Pants!! WHY can't she be a nice easy G?? S'not fair. She better grow up to be a prima ballerina or something . No pressure

We have a pizza place that will deliver 2 big pizzas, 2 portions of fries and a bottle of coke for £9. Can you imagine?

Eating dh's ferrero rocher [sp?] with my dressing gown over my clothes. Class act me.

I'll join the non eating worriers please? DD down to 13kg from nearly 16kg, that's nearly 20% of her bodyweight so back to docs again tomorrow. Today we added diarrhoea to the list of non-eating related problems. Not long before DS will weigh more than her now, and she's lost everything she has gained in the last year and dropped from 91st to 25th centile in a week. Hope Isla better soon, and H too.

Tree - DD is an E fitting, borderline D. I feel your pain. Monsoon do teeny shoes but they are expensive (not £50 expensive though) and the soles are like a piece of cardboard - great for parties but rubbish for everyday. Other than that I have to order from Clarks for her but the prices are scary. I tried some Next sandals on her today, I swear they were a good inch too wide!

I want crumpets.

In for Feb Dog - am in Cornwall the second week in May - by which time you'll be properly preggers yay! And blooming no doubt.

Oh Lenni! I'm sure as soon as she shakes all her bugs off she'll pile it on, demanding chips. Poor dd Let us know what the Dr says. How was the birthday??

On the shoes, she used to fit Rondinella really well at about 3. Now they are £75!!! Breaking out in a sweat at the memory.

Pat will put me right on this I'm sure Dog, but I have a feeling it is better to eat sugar and protein for weight gain rather than fat - I vaguely recall some kind of biology stuff I used to teach about fats being harder to digest or something. Anyway, all irrelevant until they decide to eat something I guess. Will let you know how we get on tomorrow.

MissJ - D and Z have their birthdays on 7th Jan, think they must be 2 weeks younger than N, or 3 weeks maybe?

Birthday was okay Tree - we didn't go to the waterpark place for obvious reasons but we managed a bit of a party and DD stayed awake for the whole day bless her, but is still catching up. The upside of all this is that she's been taking 3 hour naps during the day which has had a massive impact on the amount of MNing I've done cleanliness of my house. Actually I've made a party dress for her and I've made friendship bracelets recycled from some old beads for her to give as an alternative to plastic crap in party bags for her party in Jan. So glad we decided to have a party further away from Christmas, hoping she'll be well by then.

[extremely anxious emoticon] for the poor sick small ones, really hope things improve swiftly. i am sure as soon as they start recovering they will both regain their weight really quickly, dog and lenni. horrible for them and you, though.

c, it turns out, has an ear infection, she has been wretched today, the poor little girl. and she fell on her face and basically split her top lip this morning (balance a bit astray, maybe) so her top lip is all swollen. really hope abs kick in at speed...

the whole shoe size thing sounds mysterious and disturbing. it's more expensive to have small feet, i'm gathering...?

crumpets, yum.

That sounds lovely Lenni. What a lovely mum you are

Please adopt me? ]grin]

Seriously though, you must be worried. You too dog. I worry about dd1 and her weight, but a trip to a consultant did reassure me that nothing sinister was going on. I was having major panics about various diseases and problems. As much as we can ever be reassured. I hope you get some reassurance too. They will come again, and eat you out of house and home.

I won't go into dd2

Just a flying visit t bookmark. Sorry about all the ill DDs and Dss, its really worrying when they lose weight quickly. Hope thye are feeling better today. Lenni, hope DD perks up for her birthday, your party bag ideas are lovely.

Tree, I had super slim feet when I was a child, they got wider in the end htough, but remeber it being a complete PITA finding school shoes. DD has feet as wide as boats, so not a problem here at the mo.

120, mmmmm, crumpets. Glad you enjoyed the Maritime museum, its fab, I take kids from school there quite often.

Had a crappy few days here too, my Dad has really gone down hill, so have been sorting things out with docs and stairlift people and carers, and he is a stubborn an dindignant old coot so is not making it easy for us to keep him in his own home. ANyway, think I am going to have to start looking into shelteresd accomodation, which makes me so so , this is the last thing he wants, but if he won't accept help, can't be left alone, won't live with us (he currently lives over an hour away) there's not much else for it. Hopefully he will see the light an dstart co-operating.

Off to do a mammoth ADSA shop, I hate supermarket shopping...moan moan moan. Will by myself a heap of chocolate and cake and feel much better Oh, that wasn't much of a quick bookmarking post was it?

hkz about your dad. i hope you can manage to talk him around, but if you can't, my aunt is now in much better shape than she was when she was at home, failing to take any care of herself (she really wouldn't let anybody in the house, despite having no short-term memory left to speak of).

an absolutely vile day here. hope it's better where you all are

Hello folks.

I'm sorry about your Dad HKZ, you have so much on at the moment. I hop eare ok, not too weighed down.

Dog - know nothing of horse, sorry. Well, they have 4 legs and they bring me out in hives. I know that much. Am very allergic.

Maybe loan out? You were so excited to get her, seems a shame to have to loose her so soon. Although I guess if you feel she will never be the horse you need then that is different.

How was the Dr Lenni?

I have been to the Chiro. Another £50, with dd1 too. Her neck was really stiff and out. Chiro thinks she might need to see a cranial specialist is she doesn't improve soon. Nearest on is 50 miles. Great. So gets to be travel sick getting there, then feel sick and like has been beaten up on the way back.

I feel shocking I must say. My shoulder is hirting, I can't take a deep breath due to rib and back pain. And I pay for this It will feel way better tomorrow though.

Moosey - hope house is better?

evening

glad people had nice christmases
moosy - fab news
bb - hi

ours was worse than expected!!!

MAJOR MOAN ALERT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we travelled up on the 23rd of dec left @ 10am got to hull @ 5pm dd1 moaned all the way!!! traffic quiet busy

b&b really nice

xmas eve went to his parents had a lovely day but all tired

dd2 (bracken) started being sick from 10pm was sick about 6 times everywhere b&b really good though gave us spare bedding, towels etc

we were all sharing a room so noone got much sleep think she stopped bing sick @ 12pm

xmas day - she seemed not to bad just very tired
dd1 very excited they had our pressies in the room then left them there
went to his parents house for 10am

bracken slept 11am-3pm shattered

enjoyed our pressies dd1 had a good time

had our xmas meal @ 3:30pm dd2 was sick all over highchair tray
dd1 wasnt hungry as had eaten something @ 2pm so was moaning entire meal!!

boxing day was his parents party dd2 was very tired bless her and had a temp of 39!! slept loads again

27th i woke up feeling and was sick so stayed in hotel room bymyself dh was great and took kids to his parents
dd1 started being sick from 6:30pm till 3am

next day we all stayed in hotel room dd1 lay in bed all day

then we got home yest @ 5pm
journey back much better dd1 slept.

dd1 much better now

END OF MOAN ALERT!!!

have had great day today so glad to be back in our house
girls have been playing with there new toys

i went into town and bought bits in mands sale and nice bits for girls in toy shop and tesco plus did food shop also spent amazon voucher on cds and dvd

merry xmas everyone

Blimey, it's been a christmas of sickness. Glad yo survived Tink. B and B sounds good.

Stripey, that's reassuring to know about your aunt. Am just going to back off from my dad for a few days (I am so with him at the moment) and hope he makes a few sensible decisions about his life style and choices.
How is C today? On the mend? DS had an ear infection a few weeks back and he was wiped out for about a week.

Dog, I forgot about your horse. I agree with tree, if you loan her out you can always sell her on at a later date. Its good to have something that is just for you, especially as you will be a bit busier in a few months time, so I am sure your time riding will be even more appreciated. How are you feeling btw? Any morning sickness/complete exhaustion yet?

Tree, sorry to hear of DD1's aches and pains. Hope her neck is feeling better. The chiro really sorted DH out earlier this year, madly $$$$$$ though, shame it is not an NHS treatment.

Having a small gathering for ny so off to knock up some thai curry pastes and watch Eastenders...living life on the edge

ah hkz, the edge... best to give your dad some space to think about things, i guess, and yourself some too, you have enough stuff to deal with. pretty hard process for everybody .

tink, you poor thing, and poor dds, i hope everyone is better now. it seems to have been a generally sick christmas on this thread, it has to be said. must try harder next year

dog, tricky about horse. i guess you are likely to reach a point really soon where you really don't feel like riding. does she need to be ridden out or can you just put her out to grass for a year? (maybe you could get her in foal, that takes a year ) missj might be able to get some advice from her dh on how to deal with it, as he probably knows nearly everything in the world about horses...

we are going to watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest while necking sipping on some red wine in front of the fire. it's vile outside (freezing, raining, gales) so classic movies and lounging on the couch the only way to go, i think... c is really much improved, thankfully, though pretty tired. poor dp a bit under the weather now, though...