Fab Feb 2009 bar: toddle on in, grab a pew: mummy's in need of a drink or two...

[dinkystinky]

New thread for us to natter on about our toddling terrors... complete with some virtual booze. Mine's a french martini....

Calico Yes, dp always gives me a look of disgust when I bring out 3 biscuits!

I've just been trying to bake muffins. Not gone too well. They are burnt, flat and soft.
I followed the recipe

sounds like your oven might be a bit off.... ours is like that, you have to really keep and eye on stuff or else half will be burnt and the other half raw, drives me mad.

The trick with muffins is to barely mix them at all once you put the wet ingredients into the flour mix.... literally only give a few twirls of the spoon and ignore the fact that it looks like there's loads of floury bits not mixed in right. Then get them into the casings and into the oven as fast as possible.

Ok. Maybe that's where I went wrong then. Over mixed it. I'm also thinking maybe I put too much mix in each case........I will try again tomorrow.
Thanks tulips

SM - my DH is the baker in the dinky household. He said you probably overmixed it as what you want to do is sift the flour (lets air in), stir in wet ingredients and then just bake in oven. Hope you're ok with just the boys for the week - fingers crossed they sleep beautifully for you.

dinky thanks. I did sift the flour as stated in the recipe, but I think I must have over mixed it.
Will try again tomorrow anyway.

where is everybody??? feeling v lonely here with the tumbleweed....

Hello Dinky! Just stopping by quickly. Have horrible cold and getting chores done so I can go to bed. Hope all ok?

Hiya STW - nice to have some company. Sorry you havea rubbish cold - hope you get over it soon. All fine here - DS1 fell over today and has grazed and bruised half his face - fingers crossed he will be recovered fully by his birthday party...

Hello. Sorry for not checking in today.
My friend invited me along to the history museum, so was all a bit of a rush getting boys ready and lunch packed etc etc.
The children were all so well behaved. I am really proud of Jacob.
My friend said there has definitely been a change in him and he seems so mkuch happier.
She also said that she feels I am a really good, calming influence on her and she is a better mum from being my friend. How nice is that?
I did tell her to crawl out of my arse

(just having a boastful, how great am I moment. I have pledged to do more self-praising)

Ah, thats lovely of your friend to say SM. Glad you and the boys had a lovely day.

Dinky - your poor DS, sounds painful! Mine always manage to do something like that the day before I've booked them in for a photo shoot - they always have to have the scrapes and bruises air-brushed out....

SM - glad you had such a lovely day out with your boys and your friend, what I nice thing for her to say.

STW - hope your cold gets better quickly.

Good news today - DD had her weigh-in at the clinic. Last time she had fallen of the weight charts and hadn't gained any weight in over 2 months but after 5 weeks of me stuffing her with calories she has managed to put on half a kg so is back on the 2nd centile....phew!

Calico That's great news about L's weight gain
I never get Luke weighed I used to get Jacob weighed every other week.

I have an ultra-sound today to follow up some findings when I had that kidney infection in January. They spotted that my spleen was enlarged so they want to check it's gone down.
My friend is coming over to look after the boys so hopefully there'll be a long wait

Hello all do you remember me .. Havent been on in ages as fb kidnapped me and no one paid the ransom... Hope you are all well.

Still have real issues with Owen sleeping but we are getting there and Jessica is now a threenager!! No one told me about that I thought I must be a fab mum as we never had the terrible two's but when we hit the 3's bang i have my very own teenager.. lol

I wont even attempt to catch up but will keep better tabs from now on I promise xxxxx

Hi bumps Of course we reme3mber you Lots of us are coming and going as we please and just sliding straight back in. Welcome home

Hello. I'm home! Anyone in? I am not going to make any promises to stay because I'll feel bad if I don't keep them but I thought it would be bad manners to ignore the thread when I saw it in active convos. ( I have forgotten how to find the FB group )

Al is doing really well. He is a very big boy and wearing 18 month - 2yr old clothes but perhaps no surprises as he was such a big birthweight. He has just recovered from a really bad bout of chickenpox which he caught from DS1. We expected it to be mild and to be over it within a week but in fact he was absolutely covered in spots and was really quite poorly. I think it will take quite a long time for the spots to fade properly, poor little mite.

I am managing quite well with working four days a week, although it's always easier to say this in the middle of the Easter holidays. We booked our summer holiday yesterday; we're going to Turkey and I really hope we aren't going to live to regret this as I know from previous holidays there how hot it will be. I'm just expecting to have to spend the hottest hours inside keeping Al out of the sun.

Morning all. Bumps and Pluto - lovely to see you back on and great to hear about your little ones (or not so little ones ). Bumps - DS1 was a dream as a two year old and definitely harder work as a threenager - remember this too will pass. Danny's sleep still isnt fab either - though he will on occasion sleep through Pluto - sorry to hear the pox invaded your house, is miserable when you have an ill toddler and cant explain why they cant scratch the spots (DS1 got the pox at 15 months so I sympathise). Bio-oil was good for DS1's scars which have mostly faded apart from a couple you can still see on his torso.

Calico - fab news on L's weigh in. Well done you with the feeding up. I have to admit I never get Danny weighed either as hate the local baby clinic (which is like hell on earth with diapers and posset) anyway...

dinky... ouch, poor DS1! hope it heals quickly for him. my d1 has his school photo on friday and is currently sunburned, covered head to toe in scrapes and bruises and his hair is seriously dodgy looking... might not be one to stick up on the wall

welcome back bumps and pluto.... don't worry, lots of us get distracted by real life and wander in and out, it's always good to hear from you guys

calico, well done on the weight gain. A is a dinky wee thing too, he's still wearing some 3-6 month tops

Tulips Lilian has a pair of 0 to 3 month trousers that she still wears! I think they must have been mis-labled as I don't think she is that small . Mainly she is in 6 to 9 months at the mo.

Hi Bumps and Pluto! Bumps - I sympathise with you about your 'threenager'. Same here, my DS must have saved all his tantrums up for his third year.

SM - hope the scan goes ok.

SM how was the scan?

i'm still ridiculous at work and spent 2 hours friday evening in floods of tears but then had a wonderful weekend with family and some friends round so it all felt a lot better. pity i had to go back again yesterday!

i'm taking thurs and fri off to evacuate the kids to my parents as we're having new flooring laid downstairs at ours. i'm going to take dd's bike with us and see if we can get her cycling without stabilisers. i can still remember dad helping me so it feels nostalgic too.

sm hope you had better luck with next set of muffins. dd and i made some apple cake but the electric whisk i normally use was broken so dd did all of the beating herself, i thought she'd get halfway through and pass it over to me but she wouldn't stop. i became her sous-chef merely there to chop and weigh! and they're bloody lovely too.

can i ask how others are getting on with self feeding, in particular whether any of your little ones have mastered feeding themselves with spoons? i know a lot of you did blw so it's probably been easier but i've been a bit lazy with I so now when i give him bowl, food and spoon he has a bit of a meltdown if i don't start feeding him myself. dd was at nursery for this stage so of course was a fantastic eater already!

kbn I did blw with Luke and he still eats with his fingers. He even eats yoghurt with his fingers! When I give him his meals, I give him a fork (dinner) or (spoon) breakfast but I'm not fussed if he uses it or not. I haven't done anything about teaching him how to use them, I'm thinking/hoping that he'll just get it by watching the rest of us.
Ds1 (2.8yrs) still eats most things with his fingers too, but as long as he's eating, I don't really mind. I figure he won't be eating at school until he's 5 and even then it'll probably be a packed lunch as cheaper so not really going to put any pressure on using cutlery.

The scan went well, my spleen is back to it's normal size so all is well.
Sods law that as I had a sitter for the boys, I got seen straight away. Last time I had to take them with me and in the end I walked out, I'd been waiting for so long.

KBN - glad you had a lovely weekend to make up for your hellish week at work. That apple cake sounds delicious - well done to your dd for doing all the mixing! Danny is BLW but have always spoon fed him yoghurt in the mornings - he now has his own spoon and likes dipping it in the bowl and trying to put it in his mouth (around a 70% success rate) or on my arm (a 90% success rate ). DS1 was not BLW, was spoonfed and really didnt show any interest in spoons (even though we gave him one from around 14 months) until he was 18 months and started pretending to spoon feed his Pingu in his highchair. He got good at self feeding with a spoon around 2ish I think. So different kids do different things at different times I think. Maybe get your nanny to do more finger foods for I during the day so he gets the habit of self feeding more if you're worried about it - otherwise I wouldnt stress about the spoon feeding at this stage.

SM - glad your scan was ok and you got seen relatively quickly.

katie, ds1 was blw and although he does use cutlery now at 3 he has a definite preferance for finger usage still.

A hold the fork or spoon and shoves it at the food and then gets bored and picks up the food with his other hand.... he gets very cross if he drops his cutlery though I spoon feed him yogurt as i can't cope with the mess... he's very impatient with spoon feding though and will keep trying to grab the spoon. ds1 learned to spoon feed himself yogurt at 2 so doubt A will be any quicker.

KBN Lilian is quite determined to have a spoon in her hand at mealtimes but I mostly still spoon feed her (I need to ensure some calories go in!) but she like to do it too now. She isn't great with finger food as she just chucks it over her shoulder . DS (3) still eats with his fingers, mainly at nursery, but I know he can use a knife and fork quite well.....not sure if any of that is helpful!

Ah, L sounds quite strongminded Calico Danny chucks stuff on the floor when he doesnt approve of it too - sadly he hates the food DS1 loves (muffin pizzas, cheese, sausage). Its odd, I ate pretty much the same diet with both boys when pregnant but had a rubbish diet after having DS1 (lived on pizzas and rice puddings for the first month or so) and he's much more into food like that than Danny (had much better diet after his birth - and he's a much better and healthier eater who loves his fruit). Bizarre.

Hmm, have noticed on another thread that there is a new poster on MN (v recent joiner I suspect from her posting style which is all fluffly and netmum like) who has called herself dinkytinky... Two people on another thread have already mistaken her for me. Just not on...