Sept 08: last year they were cute little bundles that smelt of milk and vanilla, but now they've been replaced with a babyzilla!

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

A new thread for us as the last one was running low.

DD is so sweet. The last few nights she's shut the 'That's not my...' book herself, got up from my knee, said 'night night' and walked over to her cot.

On the other hand I've just had to shout at DS for getting out of bed for the fifth night running. It's not until I get to shouting level that he actually listens.

I'm loving the gruffalo theory! Can't wait for the next installment!

Dd was a night time screamer for years. If it didn't settle down then one of us DH would end up sleeping on her floor, but we've not had to do that for months, she just seems to have grown out of it.

I've made myself a doc's appt for my self-diagnosed endometriosis . Its not for a couple of weeks though, must step away from google in the mean time and stop freaking out about my desire to be pregnant. I just see my two dcs playing sooo nicely, and think how massive the age gap is going to be before then next one and think I've done the wrong thing by not starting ttc last year. But I wasn't ready back then, and now I am I've gone from ready to desperate in next to no time.
Sorry, ramblings of a mad woman.

On the plus side, we've got our planning permission so the extension is all systems go now!

debi its my dh's 30th this year and i'm getting him a roasting tin, slow-cooker, and set of drinking glasses!! He really doesn't do birthdays though, he'd rather having nothing than just something for the sake of it. I'm toying with the idea of doing a surprise weekend away. I could ask his parents to 'invite themselves' for his birthday weekend, then surprise him by taking him away. Only thing is I don't know where we'll be up to with extension, so whether we'll be living here or down south at the time!

The thread has dropped from my active convo's

Happy belated birthday Carrie, sorry to hear that this month wasn't successful. I'll keep my fingers crossed for all who are ttc this month (and no that doesn't include me!)

When do you move Hopefully? What are you going to grow in your garden this year? I'm going to grow some salad leaves this year as during the summer I constantly bitch about the price of a bag of leaves, so thought I would remedy that by growing some. I guess I really need to pull my finger out and start looking into what I need to do!

DS has got some Geox shoes and I am astounded at how good they still look. I got his half price in the Jones new year sale

DS has also taken to waking up about 10pm at the mo and I really can't figure out why

Oh and I also meant to say, have you thought about speaking to someone about your dd's birth IOM. You've mentioned it a few times here recently which makes me think it is troubling you quite a bit.

Maybe looking at the birth trauma may be a good idea.

I think I might go for garden stuff. I'm a bit daft though, other people ask for ideas and I give them the few ideas I had myself! I suggested an 'experience' to his parents so if they don't get that I might look into it.

Hopefully ignore your mum. I spent hardly any time at home with ds1 when he was a baby/toddler. We were always out doing things and he doesn't stop talking. Ever.

Right I have an AIBU that is not a big enough issue to put in AIBU (and I'd be too scared) but I need to get it off my chest. AIBU to be really upset at what my childminder did today?
At 10pm last night she told me (not asked, told) she needed to finish at 4pm today instead of 5.15. When I asked her why she reluctantly told me it was for an interview. I said yes because I'm nice and I didn't think I really had a choice. I was sure she said wanted me to come at 4 so that she'd have time to get ready before she left at 4.30. So when I left work and realised I would be 5 mins late I txd her so she didn't start stresing at 4pm. She txd back just saying 'late'. When she answered the door I said 'I'm not late, I'm over an hour early' and she went off on a rant about how she was reimbursing me and she was now in a huge rush as she needed to leave at 4. I responded with 'well I'm sorry but I left work as soon as I could' and just walked off and got in the car. I am going to have to do work over the weekend now as I had over an 1hr less at work but she made me feel like I had done something wrong when I was doing her a huge favour. It really upset me and when dh came home and I told him I cried.

Also those of you with childminders (and Lollipop if you're there)- do you pay for the week at the start or the end of the week?

Debi- That is disgraceful from your childminder and you shouldn't feel bad. Take a look at your contract and see what it says but there should be something in there about how many weeks notice she (and you) need to give regarding holiday - it might only be an hour but it's still holiday that she's taken even if she is 'reimbursing' you (cheeky bint!) Then when she is rude when you drop off on Monday you can tell her she's gone against her contract and unless she wants you to pull out she can shut her trap.

What exactly does she mean by an interview anyway, an interview to meet a new mum/mindee or an interview for an admin job for instance??

I would be seething personally, it's not your fault, you've been far nicer to her than you should and she repays you by giving you a mouthful - lovely.

Met the lovely Hopefully and T last week - I'm surprised I haven't put her off 2 as dd1 did a fair amount of whining. T regarded me with great suspicion until we were leaving, when suddenly he was all smiles! Sorry to hear of your relapse after our visit - hope you're feeling better now

Debi - no experience of childminders, but seems incredibly & unreasonably late notice to tell you of any changes to her availability unless for some personal emergency or similar.

Carrie - my age gap between dds is 2.9, and they are lovely together, play well etc, so don't despair at a larger age gap!

All this talk of shoes - we still have no need of them! dd2 can walk now, but rarely does. The day she found she could (>2 weeks ago) she just rose to her feet & walked all around perfectly competently (other than having a slightly leading right leg due to her weird method of movement) - she showed off again the next day, and then barely bothered for a week. Today she walked around a few times, but she just doesn't seem to want to. Is this very odd?

And holidays! We can even slightly join in with this, against all odds, as the Rotary club have donated a holiday to the refuge & the staff chose us to go - it's a holiday park place near Bournemouth next month. I think it might be tricky doing activities with the 2 of them on my own, but it'll be lovely to have a change of scene. Fingers crossed April is warm, not snowy like last year!

That's lovely splish. I'm sure you'll manage to have fun. FIngers crossed it's warm.

Thanks Lollipop. It was for an interview for a different type of job but she wouldn't tell me what. So part of me now hopes she gets it! What makes it awkward is that she's a good friend too. And I'll see her at toddler group on Monday before as minder on Wed (and dh usually does drop off and pick up).
I have issues with other things she does too but them some things are great. And today she took ds2 even though he was full of the cold. And she took them both with chicken pox if the other kids she had had already had it.
From Sept when ds1 is at school we might need to find a new minder for him for after school as she doesn't drive and lives too far from his school for pick up. So maybe it's time to think about getting someone else for them both. I don't want our friendship to be ruined over this.

The reason we got shoes as soon as DD started cruising was because we were on holiday and DD wanted to cruise on really pebbly, rough, uneven ground. I want her to be independent so bought her, then, some soft shoes so she could but if it hadn't been that circumstance I'd have left her in barefeet for as long as possible.

Splish Bournemouth is pretty cool so enjoy.

Carrie googling is never good. I googled Olliers recently (a bone disease I've had since a kid but never googled) and was horrifed. I'm now having a bone graft to check whether or not I have (benign) tumours in my arms and legs!

God, yes. Stay away from Google!!!!!

Today I only googled vacuum cleaners, how good am I?! Bit annoyed that ours has packed up though. Thank you for your kind words everyone

debi If this is a one off then I'd been lenient to your cm; from her point of view she might have been absolutely bricking it about asking you to pick up early, coz in telling you she's got an interview, she's effectively saying 'I might be stopping being a cm' and so would be understandably nervous about that. Also who isn't nervous, touchy and a bit not-quite-themselves before an interview? True, she was very rude to you, but if you want to preserve the friendship then when you see her on Monday I'd been very friendly and ask her how the interview went. If she mentions being nervous you could say something like 'I could see you were not your usual cheery self' and give her a chance to apologise. There could have been any number of other things going on to make her be short with you. Sorry, bit of a devils advocate post that one!

Back to the vacuum cleaner shopping...

Thanks Carrie. You are probably right and I bet she's annoyed at me too. She does have a tendancy to get worked up about what I think are minor things and can take things too seriously so maybe I should have known not to wind her up with the comment about not being late. She's one of my good Christian friends so I do value her friendship. I think we maybe need to get together without our kids to have a chat about the other things that annoy me (like she moans about the other parents to me all the time) and clear some things up.

If anyone is looking for innocent things to google I need a small 2 seater sofa that doesn't cost a fortune for our dining room.

bookmarking....

debi It would have been better if your CM had at least confirmed everything by text so you knew what the score was. Hope you get it smoothed over next week.

I've texted say I'd like to talk to her and can we meet tomorrow for coffee. She's not replied yet though.

Have just been to the 1st BBQ of the year so must be nearly summer meglet

Debi hope you get it sorted out with her. I like Carrie's charitable explanation, but I know I'd be peeved with her too.

Splish that's great about the holiday, what a lovely surprise! Hope the weather's at least half decent for you.

ILTMIMI salad is great to grow. We grew lettuces as well as salad leaves (rocket etc) to cut and come again last year (you can leave the lettuces for a bit longer so they're big, or cut them after a couple of weeks and they grow again a few times). It's so expensive from the shop and so cheap to grow. I am so excited about moving house and having proper veg beds. We've got plans for:

• potatoes
• carrots
• salad
• beetroot
• tomatoes
• aubergine (not holding out much hope for that one)
• herbs
• cabbage, brocolli and leeks for over winter

If I had to recommend my number one crop, it would be salad, closely followed by the easy herbs like bay, thyme and rosemary, and basil on the windowsill.

Hopefully - How much space do you need to grow salad items? I need to show my mindees how things can 'grow' (uuhg) so I was thinking of planting something easy but that we can eat afterwards - any recommendations? I don't have much space and was thinking of trying to grow things in big car/tractor tyres.

hopefully i'm seriously impressed!

splish I'm so excited for you about the holiday!

debi I was thinking that what I should have said in my earlier post is that YANBU to be annoyed. I think you're going the right way about resolving it though. A friend and I had ishoos with each other a year or so ago. It was soooo hard to break the ice and start talking about it, but what a difference its made, and we're closer than ever now. Its not very British to have those sorts of chats though!

Hi guys can I canvass some opnions?????

Would really like to move back to the village where I grew up - various reasons inc my mothers health and my nephew has just been diagnosed with special needs.

Anyway, we cant find a house we like

Would we be mad to sell up and move into rented accomodation til we find what we want?

If we manage to sell this house we could theoretically end up with a large deposit for another house (60k) and clear all our debts too (credit card)

Mad or feasible?

We could always buy a dump and do it up I guess as long as we had somewhere nice to live in the meantime.

Thoughts? Dh thinks I am mad as we only have 8 years left on this mortgage but I just dont want to be here any more - the only reason we stayed was ds1 school - not an issue now.

sigh.

bec In my opinion you would not be mad. That's basically exactly what we have done and it feels remarkably good.

We sold our house and moved into rented in the area we wanted to be in nearly 3 years ago. This was after 2 years of trying to coordinate buying and selling and having one or the other fall through. Our plan was then to sell, move into rented, and buy as soon as the right thing came up. We are still in rented as we have found it so much cheaper than paying the mortgage on an equivalent property, plus it keeps our options open. I have become a real fan. I would go for it. Also, as we moved to the country, the landlords tend to be nice landowners who want long term tenants who really make a place their own - it's not like dodgy buy to let city landlords at all.

Not been on for ages as thjings are always chaotic here.
Finally got my letter for booking in. I go in 2 weeks and then they will discuss my scan. I could be 18 weeks before then. Also council won't accept me being preggers until I have the scan as evidence so we are being shunted down the list for available houses.
On the plus side w e have just been to look at a 5 and a half bedroom house. Very nicely done, great kitchen all the space we need no need to decorate or change anything. The rent is a bit high but definitely worth going for. Just hope social aren't going to be as bad as council and will accept us needing a 5 (and a half) bedroom for 3 kids and a bump

My "babyzilla" highlights from the last two days:

1. DD has discovered she can open the big tall kitchen bin. I realised this when she was wandering around eating a bread crust that I knew I had put in the bin an hour before! Ewwwww! The bin is now sellotaped shut while I work out what to do about it.
2. She bit me. Yes, you heard right, she bit me. On the breast! To be fair, we were playing row row your boat quite boisterously and she grabbed my top in her teeth which made me laugh, so the next "row" she took a bigger bite... you would not believe the mark. I had ice on it for ages while DH took her away (the pain was unbelievable) but I now have a double row of red teeth-shaped marks in the middle of a violent yellow bruise. Ow!!

debs Hope you get the house.

Ouch Ponymum! Debs how insane that you'll be so far along before having a scan. Hope all goes well with the house.

AF just arrived, am getting a bit about TTC, but trying to keep chin up and hoping next month will be our month.

Bec plan sounds v feasible - I think more and more people are doing that as property market is so silly at the moment.

Lollipop salad is super easy, and we got enough for probably 20% of our meals from one tub about 2 feet in diamater, so would think a couple of tractor tyres or similar would make brilliant tubs and plenty for mindees to eat with the odd meal if you want.

I really want to try growing some fruit, but I'm thinking I might just stick to veg this year, and maybe put some rhubarb in at some point. I've just discovered a book I forgot I had about allotments and it's inspiring me to grow even more!

Hurrah for the holiday Splish, you deserve it

Defo go for it Becaroo. If it's where you want to be, do it. Life's too short.

I've ordered some rocket and Italian leaves seeds - I'm all excited now . I've cleared a space on the window cill, I just need to get some propergators (sp?)

Try not to be too despondent Hopefully. You've been poorly, give your body a chance to heal and recover. I don't know if you are aware, but illness can delay and stop ovulation (just for the time you are actually ill). If you can, use the next few weeks to get your mind, body and spirit into shape. Eat well, sleep well, and shag like there is no tomorrow

Thanks for the views guys...what would I do without you all, eh????

I really feel it could be the way forward for us - just got to convince dh! Any ideas?

splish enjoy your hols - god knows you deserve it!

hopefully You have been really ill recently. Give your body chance to recover.....and then go for it!!!!

ILTMIMI Wow, you are organised! I am the kiss of death to anyhting green. Seriously. I have killed cactus. They live in the desert for gods sake!!!!

Tobys babyzilla moments - Just today we have had;
climbing onto kitchen chair, then onto kitchen table
Climbing onto toy box, then onto the windowsill
Biting - luckily it only seems to be me, my mum, Tom and dh so far. No idea what to do about it!
Taking things out of the recycling bin and presenting them to me with a very gratified look on his face.
Emptying his full sippy cup all over the floor - twice
Taking EVERY dvd we own out of the dvd towers and then trying to hide the evidence of his naughtiness under the rug.

God, I could go on and on....but wont