January 2009- Help! A toddler ate my baby!

[hackneyzoo]

I told you it was a lame title.....

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am very excited for you! I breastfed DD until she self weaned at 15 mo when I was 4 months pregnant with H. She became very fussy when feeding. I started using the never offer, never refuse on the morning milk, thinking I'd drop that one first. Then after two days of no morning milk, she started refusing the evening feeds too. I was really sad (mainly because she became a massive pain to settle). But after a week I started feeling a lot better as I think feeding and being pregnant was a big ask by then. There are some great books on it, but by far the best advice I was given was not to worry about it as 9 months is a long old time and the likelihood is they will self wean.

I must admit I am more than slightly jealous. God knows why as my two certainly are a full time job.

wow miss j -

what great news

hi to everyone else

MissJ, forgot to say, my boys are 2 years 8 days apart and they really are best friends.

They fight of course, as all siblings do, but fundamentally they adore each other and hate to be apart.

It makes life so much easier when they are a bit older and able to entertain each other. I love it when my two disappear off to their bedroom to play so I get a some peace and quiet and its so cute when I can hear them whispering to each other after lights out at bedtime.

120 That's good to hear - I really hope N decides to self-wean naturally although I will be really ... just seems a bit much, plus I would have to 'eat for three'! (okay, that bit sounds good ).

Lenni and 120 I didn't realise you have almost the exact same age gap between your DCs - I am sure the first few years months will be hell, but hopefully they will like one another .

All still seems very unreal, especially as no-one in RL knows.

You are a broody lot! There is just something so precious about a newborn... but the reality of changing 2 nappies, and dealing with terrible twos at the same time as the endless grind of feeding a baby, is really quite terrifying!

So do I have to join another thread now? Not sure I would have the time or motivation to stick with another one... but maybe just nice to say hello.

noooo! stay here! well, or do both, but it's a bit of a faff. Then again, if you need to talk about curious twangs, food aversions and how many cushions you need to sleep with... nah, we'll happily keep you anyway!

may even post my super secret 'Labour' biscuit recipe.

Def staying for the biscuits then

bookmarking

Was just going to read an run as at PILs...but WOW! Congratulations Miss J! That is brilliant news am very very happy for you and DH and N! Will be a cool age gap too, my DCs are 20 or 21 months apart...v hard work at start but gets better all the time and they keep each other annoyed amused! Hooray! Very excited !

...hmm...on second thoughts, sex and knitting wouldn't really go together

Congrats MissJ!

Lenni- NO, not yet, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. One day left tomorrow (incredibly long day as I'm helping out with the play for some strange reason!). Then 2.5 weeks off!!!!!

MissJ- no fecking off to another thread now. You can say hello, but thats it, do you here

Well, what an arse of a day. Lost my last contact lens down the sink this morning so drove one-eyed to the opticians to get an emergency pair enroute to work. Had to drop the kids half hour earlier at nursery so thimgs were a bit of a rush! Then broke my heel of my boot at work and our work guinea pigs were mauled overnight so was met sight of their poor, very dead bodies this morning. Bloody fox or dog or something managed to breech the security fence round our ecology garden, git!

Ever feel like everything is conspiring against you!

Just watching 'one born every minute' to cheer myself up!

Ooh, congratulations MissJ, I'm so pleased for you, and glad of an opportunity for those of us who want the excitement of someone else having a baby.

There are a lot of us with an age gap of less than 2 years on this thread - HKZ, 120, oooggs (whose middle dcs are twins and there's DS1 too), lg&t - all 20-22 months I think.

Join another thread but please don't desert this one. If you do we'll stalk you.

grrr. never saw any of OBEM. can anyone post a link so I can see some? I know I'm a luddite but the occasional really watchable program a TV does not justify!

Don't worry, I am not going anywhere. You will have to put up with my whinging. Not that I imagine anyone finds time to post with 2 small ones .

I missed OBEM too - just go to 4od (on demand) and it will be there for a week 120. Had my Mum over for dinner last night, and told her, she was over the moon and after dinner made me lie on the sofa while she washed up .

pat at mauled guinea pigs, I assume you mean the ones at school? Poor kids... are all they all hardened to life and death stuff these days?

Morning

Just back from the Easter Bonnet Parade at school. It was really cute and dd loved clapping along to the music and pointing at all the hats saying "ots dat" and "ook at dat". She was very good considering they made us wait in the hall from 9.00 to 9.30 before they started and lots of the younger siblings were getting quite ansty by the time they came in.

Ds2 and I sat down on Sunday morning and made a top hat with a white bunny head with pink fur inside the ears on the front, a yellow feather boa round the rim and some fluffy chicks he made out of polystyrene (sp?) eggs and lots of yellow feathers and glue plus googly eyes sat on the top. He was so excited, he has asked every morning this week whether today was the day he could wear it.

Each class did a parade, then the whole infants sang "I'm a Spring Chicken" which is ds2's favourite song.

It made me realise how lucky I am to have dd, as without her next year would be the last time we got to do all the cute infants type things. Brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

Pat - poor guinea pigs and horrible life lesson for the kids. Sounds like you had a horrible day, hope you managed to grab a bit of 'me' time to recover.

MissJ, escaping the washing up already! This pregnancy is going to be a breeze.

Whinge as much as you like. We want to hear about every preggie gripe and grumble (as well as all the nice bits of course).

pat - oh no what a day for you how awful about guineas

my monday went like that - alarm didnt go off a second time so had to leave dd2 with dh while i took dd1 to school would have never made it
then later on in the morning i locked myself out so dh had to drive home!!
then i needed to take something back to next waited till dh got home from work as next open till 8pm got there were shut!!
nothing compared to your problems

hi books and elk

hi miss j

i forgot all about obem dont know why!!
usually remember

cant comment on close age gap sounds fun
mine are 3.5 years age apart
me and my borther are 22mnths apart is cool

went to music with mummy got soaked grr hate this weather is only 3 degrees c 2!!!

OBEM here for catch up... N asleep so am going to watch it myself now. Almost cried when phoning midwives to book in, so I don't think I have much hope of surviving the first 5 minutes of the show...

MM DD sounds so cute - and what a chatterbox! So lovely that you are really appreciating her babyhood.

tink sounds like you have had crappy morning too - it's freezing here too and snowing!

MissJ - she's like her Mum. Never uses one word when ten will do!

I can't watch OBEM at the moment, am far to broody. There seemed to be lots of tiny babies at the Easter Parade, so cute and schnuggly, especially in comparison to dd who, whilst lovely, does tend to feel a bit like I'm wrestling an octopus on occasion.

Its freezing here too, but I was lovely and warm with dd in the Moby this morning. Love it, its like having an interactive hot water bottle.

We are currently keeping everything crossed for the weather to warm up before the 18th as we have booked a bouncy castle for ds2's party and they won't come if it rains. We haven't told the boys though, as we don't want them to be disappointed.

Tink, sounds like Monday was a 'Monkey Day' as my Mum says. Lots of people seem to have had a tough day, me included. Hope the rest of the week is shaping up better.

Roll on the Easter holidays. I'm fed up with wet and cold school runs and really regretting giving myself a fringe as it goes curly every time I step outside the front door at the moment with all this rain. I'm hanging out for two whole weeks off school stress, with the odd pj day thrown in for good measure.

lol books.

Pat, meant to say how awful about your guinea pigs earlier but my brain is in a similar place to books'!

Moose, I'm with you on the hoping for more relaxing times. March has been a pretty shitty month all round here!

Books, the boys still have one more day. Still have to survive the Easter Assembly with dd in tow tomorrow morning.

I have both boys parties in the holidays, one on the 10th and one on the 18th.

I'm still putting the finishing touches to the Secret Agent Training Manual and need to create the clues for the mystery, and print the transfers for their tshirts, but am almost there thank goodness.

They are going to get to do, code cracking, fingerprinting, lifting and analysis, footprint moulding, observations tests and will have to solve a full-blown mystery based around clues which will be made using the techniques they have learned (so invisible ink, encryption, wax writing). I'll also be using a locked digital safe and cash box that they have to locate the key for. They also have to work out who from the party is the double-agent that stole the party bag sweets with the aid of some strategically placed fingerprints, a pre-made plaster of paris footprint and some other glaringly obvious clues. I'm both looking forward to it and terrified at the same time.

Am having to get my thinking cap on about ds2's party though, as I was relying on them wanting to spent a good proportion of the time bouncing on the bouncy castle, but will have to have some contingency activities set up now in case it rains.

If anyone has any ideas for space academy/astronaut training type activities, I would be extremely grateful for any ideas. So far they are making, decorating and launching alka selzer rockets and using a robot arm (toy grabber thingy) to transfer moon rocks (foil and cotton wool balls) from the planet's surface into the geology collection boxes. The bouncy castle was supposed to be zero gravity training and I was hoping that they would be most taken with that and spend ages on it. If all else fails I might have to pull a quick 'Find the Alien' game out of the bag using pictures as clues rather than proper clues as they are all at different stages of reading etc. Don't really want to though, as it would be a bit samey for my two and their cousin who are going to both parties.

Sorry - ignore me, I've got back into party stress head mode .... and breathe!

I now remember why I don't do this every year!