AUG 08 - Toddzilla vs Mum-ra!

[cyteen]

Once more with feeling

Yawning all.
DD up at 6.30 - but slept the night without a peep, so not really complaining. She is currently sat on the kitchen floor beating fresh air in the collander with a mixer beater.

I'm on hold to the bank who had added a mysterious £120 charge to my account. Seems my overdraft had expired buth they hadn't told me.
Me "I think these must be overdraft charges but I haven't been over my overdraft"
Her "your overdraft has expired"
Me "no it hasn't"
Her "yes it has"
etc etc in a panto fashion, until I point out that if it has they haven't told me about it.
Cue them refunding me and setting my overdraft back up. yay.

DH thinks I am depressed but he always says that whenever I cry about anything. Because he is on anti-d's he assumes everyone else is depressed too. I don't think I am depressed, I think I just need to organise my life, get some systems going and concentrate on doing things properly, rather than the half-arsed scattergun approach.

Have decided once and for all I am going to give away my guinea pigs as I am truly a bad owner and it would be kinder to give them a new home. Have offered them to my DBro but my mum says she will have them if not, which is great because DD won't be too upset then. Yes I know this is the easy option and I should be able to cope with them but it will be one less thing to feel crap about. Sometimes I have too much confidence/self-delusion so it's good to admit one's failings and deal with them, esp when it comes to animal welfare.

bigs hugs buckets and vg..

i am in a similar foe re what to do with my life.. i'm lucky enough to have a greay cm.. she does 12 hours a week split into three days {vg she is mum of one of dh's closest friends} but i know if i am going to do something will have to up the childcare but don't want too.. stamps feet..

realistically dd2 will go to pre school in less than 18 months so i kind of just want to keep her close til then... doesn't boad well for future employment/what am i going to do with myself.. but guilt and wanting to spend precious time with my last baby is overridding all of this.. not sure if any of that makes sense

Buckets Good idea to lighten the load. Horrid to feel that you have so much to do that nothing or somethings never get done as well as you would like.
I don't see decisions like that as being easy, brave to look at things and think how can I change things and start to do so.

No hands to type = fine example of my tendency towards melodramatic thinking.

LOL, aren't we funny? Do you think our menfolk are so self-analytical?

VG Can't remember does your DS1 take himself to school or do you take him? If the latter, perhaps you could find a CM in that area who does a schoolrun so you could handover DS2 at the school gates? Although perhaps you could find a childcare student at the local 6th form who has a free morning each week or needs a placement? Not exactly what you're after but an improvement on what you've got perhaps. And with someone so young you wouldn't have to feel you have to have a relationship with them (one of the reasons I was ok about getting rid of my cleaner! She was so clingy)

VG, I have it on fairly good authority that the ECCE scheme that is just starting which offers 3hrs free childcare, 5 days per week in the pre-school year will get rolled out to two years fairly soon.

You have to use all five days to qualify for any free care though. Banging my head against the wall as our small, rural playgroup may implode because of this restriction.

I spent half of yesterday sorting out the forms for the scheme till June (filling them in when children were distracted or in bed of course)

DD2 got into our bed at two and sang either mummy or daddy to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little STar for about 3 hours.

And she is upstairs protesting about a nap

Children need to be between 3 yrs and 3 months and 4 yrs and 6 months on 1st September in the year they claim.

The leaflet is here

The problem in Dublin will be lack of places. The problem here is that very few people want the five days ...

I got called a 'blow-in' in conversation the other day over the whole fiasco, but the comment was made to a friend of mine who almost annihilated my critic.

The August birthday pushes back ds2's eligibility, of course. It might be worth talking to the local childcare office or the Office of the Minister for Children (after next week as they are bombarded at the mo) to see where the land lies on another year being offered.

The OMYCA people are very easy to deal with ...
DD2 will go to school just after her fifth birthday. DD2 will be 5.3 ...

If you have it in mind at least it will help with forward planning.

saw lovely GP today (aka school friend) and to put my mind at ease he offered me an early scan. So we get to see/hear Pea on monday.... hopefully

we started chatting about options for birth etc ie what hospital do i want to go to. I said at home would be preferred option. This will be 'allowed' as long as DS's pregnancy and birth were straight forward. I said they were mostly. Apparently doc's records didn't have anything about all the problems we had, he told me to stop telling him about them and that meant a hb would be more likely! God i am so lucky to have one of my best friends from school as my gp, although i admit i didn't think this when he had to examine my bum!

sorry to hear people are a bit down about themselves. i concur re too many things juggling and not giving any quality time. i find it easier/better if i've got a deadline otherwise things just float along half-finished

Ok, you can't use the place at the moment until the child is 3.3 because they would then be starting school at 4.3 which is young in this system (4 is the legal minimum but not all schools are happy to take children under 4.3 )).

The funding now is for the year directly before the child starts school.

There are exceptions to the date system if the child has a letter from a specialist confirming a developmental delay (and is therefore going to school later), or if the school they will attend confirms a policy of accepting children only over 5.7 (not sure many do this though).

For ds2, it's worth knowing about because it is possible the scheme will run for the two school years directly before school entry. Not sure what they will do with the birthdate thing for that as it has been a mish-mash here. (Some January children whose parents had opted to hold them back don't get any funding while their friends' children born after 2 Feb get five free days)

If the date system stays as it is now:

... and DS2 goes to school in Sept 2013 at 5.1, he will be eligible for 5 sessions from Sept 2012. (The sessions vary depending on whether the facility offers full day-care, part-time, sessional,or half-sessional slots.)

If they add a year (poss in Budget 2011 next December), he would be eligible from Sept 2011.

That's still a long way off, but if you are going to use a nursery setting it might be good to find out what they are doing with the ECCE scheme (as they will suddenly get over-subscribed for Sept 2011 if it is announced in December 2010.)

... If you send him to school at 4.1 I can't work out what the story is off the top of my head. But I think that's because the system is set up to get to edge you towards 5.1 ...

The slots must be used on separate days. If you opt for 5 and mainly take him in on 4, that will be fine. If you sign up but only ever take him 2 or three days the fraud squad will be on the provider's case ...

And no money is available for children of any pre-school age group who are 1) with a childminder 2) using group care for less than four days.

Email me if that doesn't cover it.

Or read this to the sleepless babies to knock them out.

Crafty Brainstorm please!

I have a double duvet cover in white cotton percale which has shrunk a bit and doesn't fit the duvet anymore. Can anyone think of something easy I can do with it? Was planning to keep it for future fancy dress purposes but feeling crafty (and you know it, Hob-by-craft.)

yup, i second vg's idea buckets!

hi vg

i'm ok but currently on the phone to bro, he's trying to get me to change date of wedding FFS!!!!!!!!

evening all... passes sazz a much needed cuppa...

dds finally in bed tho dd2 just had a massive crying fit.. ran up to find her sitting upright crying her eyes out ... things always go pete tong at bedtime when dh isn't here.. guess i rely on him more than i thought ...

miamla stand your ground honey its your wedding day and you have chosen date,booked venue etc!!!!