October 08 - Got ourselves some crying, talking, sleeping (sometimes!) walking, living dolls.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Well somebody better start the new thread, so might as well be me!

No stats this time .

I agree Ekka that you are definitely not tied in to school holiday dates yet. School is entirely optional until they are rising 5's.

V tired today after crappity crap from crapsville night with ds last night. Off to bed very soon. I did have a lovely pregnancy massage this evening though, which at least gave me 1.5hrs to myself to relax.
Long drive home tomorrow, so that's something to look forward to .

ekka - I guarantee that you'll take one look at the prices and decide she can miss nursery! they really don'tmind. Then, in a few years you'll look at the prices again and decide that actually, in Reception, where they still do EYFS, that she could miss a tiny bit of that too....
We always took our hols in Sept which was lovely, then the year DS1 started school we went in the June. Didn't go last year at all - oh no, silly me, we had 4 days in the in-laws barn...
CSWS - hope you have a better night tonight.

I know, unfortunately this year it's dh's work that means we can't go in term time. He is tied to quarterly filings (so April-early May, July-early Aug, Oct-early Nov and Jan-early March are out) but this year June is looking busy workwise too and Sept is likely a pita for him. And we want to go for 3 weeks as it won't cost any more and makes the trip worthwhile. So likely to be Aug and cost us over 3k . Hopefully next year won't be so awkward or else I'll have to go back to work just to pay for the trips to see my pil!

Hello! I've not been around this week because DS has been vomiting ALL week! Poor little lad.

I've had a very quick catch up....

KSal - Congratulations!!! and a little bit . Having two is fine, they have their moments but mostly it's manageable!

Ronshar - Shall I start making arrangements to have you sectioned? Babies are gorgeous little beasts.... children not so much. They vomit all over the place when your having a day out.

Pistachio - The NCT have done little to impress me thus far. Agree that you need to make an official complaint about it, the traveling expectation is totally unreasonable. I feel terrible for being grumpy about having to travel 40 mins on the train to my tutor once a month... But I have to pay all my travel expenses but that's probably because all my fees are paid. Will I get a student discount?!?!?! Woohoooooo!!! DH WILL be pleased!

CSWS - Hope you've had a good holiday despite the total lack of sleep!

The last holiday we took was snowboarding in 2007, before Q was conceived... nothing since. Hopefully we'll be able to take a holiday when he's in preschool and childcare costs are cut down a bit.
Hopefully some family can get out to see us again this summer.

I feel so sorry for all the people trapped abroad. At nursery yesterday one member of staff (there are only 5 of them) was stuck in Thailand, but as the next one to go on holiday couldn't get to Spain they weren't going to be short staffed!
My sister is stuck in Australia, due to fly home tomorrow, she is setting up the new Surestart centre here and is desperate to get back, they'd gone for a wedding or she wouldn't have taken the time off at all.
DHs uncle is stuck in Canada, but frankly, he can stay there....

We don't really have holidays! We went to Dorset in October last year and this year we're going to the US to visit DH's sister and her VILE husband (woohooo ). But before that I can't remember the last time we went away! I spend too much money on clothes for the DC to ever save enough for holidays....

Sounds nice, 50ft!! I want to go to the US for a holiday to see family and friends
Hopefully we will be able to at some point. I'm not over spending on clothes or anything... all Q's clothes are handed down to him and I haven't bought myself anything new in ages (except for that £5 dress I got with the offer). We budget soooo carefully and when I look at our salaries together, we really should be able to afford a basic cheap holiday. It's mortgage, bills, bills, bills... and money for expenses involved in buying/selling and moving... ugh. I know money isn't everything or even anything but sometimes it really gets me down. We both studied and got MA degrees and still very little leftover at the end of the month. I know a lot of people have it worse, so I shouldn't complain!

We always go camping as it's cheap and cheerful. Last year we got our Eurotunnel crossing with our tesco vouchers and it looks like we'll be doing the same again this year with the ferry (to Holland we think).

50ft - poor ds. Is he any better now?

We've had dp's parents down this weekend. I'm very happy because dp and his dad have put some fencing up in our garden and it finally means S can use it without me worrying that he's going to fall over the side and kill himself (there's a very steep drop on one side down onto hard concrete so we've hardly used the garden since he's been mobile). Also we went to Regents Park today for a walk and it was so lovely and peaceful with no planes in the sky (of course I feel really sorry for those people who are stranded but I did enjoy the quiet).

Oh and I saw Paul Weller queuing up to buy an ice cream.

I used to teach Paul Weller's daughter when I worked at a different int'l school in central London.

So true about quiet without planes!! How much in tesco vouchers do you need for the eurotunnel?

btw Q's cough hasn't really gotten better, just less frequent... and over the past few days it has been absolutely dreadful. Worse when he's running around outside definitely - yesterday was awful - so bad that I had to leave the playground as parents were looking at me with when he did it and I think they were scared their kids would catch it or something
And we went to Horton Farm Park again yesterday and I kept having to move locations - good thing there are so many different play areas there!
Ronshar or anyone who knows - any idea what this could be? His throat seems fine right now, I even looked down there with a light when he was sleeping

He's putting his finger in his ear and twisting a lot, too, though not fussy or in pain. But the cough is truly horrendous. Barking cough after a very chesty start. Poor baby

Sorry forgot to mention that he is otherwise well in himself and runs around, full of energy and is quite happy unless tired for a nap or bedtime.

star - if he's fiddling with his ear I might just get him checked by the Dr in case he's got an ear infection.
My sister has just been told the next available flight back from Australia is 5th May!!!!! She said they are in shock really. Their flight to Kuala Lumpur would have gone but there is absolutely no accomodation in KL and the airport shuts at midnight so they'd be well and truly stuck. At least their daughters are 19 & 17 so can look after themselves. Though she is having to go to the chemist there and try to get repeat prescriptins for the Pill for both herself and her eldest daughter! Imagine that for mother/daughter bonding!
lovely and sunny here, off into the garden in a mo.

Oh yes, 50ft, how are your poorly DCs?

May?? That's madness! Are the airline going to pay for your sister to stay out there Pepper?

Star - I was going to say to get Q checked out at the doctor too. Poor fella.

I'm in shock. S woke up at 9.30 this morning (after I brought him into our bed for a feed)

Re the Tesco vouchers, each one is worth 4 times the face value if you redeem it at one of the partner companies, so a £2.50 voucher is worth £10. You just exchange them for vouchers for that particular company and send them off in payment so you can use them in part payment and pay the rest yourself IYSWIM. The cost for crossings varies depending on when you travel.

Oh wow that is a good deal re the tesco vouchers. I will bring Q to the dr next week when I can get an appointment. It's horrible because he was having a great time at Horton Farm Park and running around so much, then he'd have a massive chesty-barking coughing fit. People were seriously staring at me with that look as if I should have him home in bed!
A few times, someone asked me (different people in different spots of the park) "is he ok??" I could only say "well, I think so...". Ugh.

to 9.30 aubergenie! Fab news!

Pepper we have a lot of teachers and families stuck abroad as well... and some were told May, too. I wonder how many I'll have in my class on Monday! I've already had 4 emails of families stuck in other countries.
I wondered about that, too - for people not visiting family, but on holiday - won't accommodation be tight...

You're right Pistachio - I'm really looking forward to going out there later, sitting on the bench and having a coffee while S has a play. It'll be even better later as my niece is coming over to do some tidying in the garden for us. I've started, but never get the time to get it finished and she's off on a trip to Magalouf after her A levels and needs some spending money for booze so we're going to bung her a few quid for it and everyone's happy!

Gah! My husband is an IDIOT! His car was stolen last night. He's only just bought it from a friend so can you guess the rest...... ? Yup, he hadn't insured it yet. What a fucking genius!

The DC have stopped vomiting now. M is just very sleepy.

Luckily it was a bit of a banger but even so..... Both the DC had vomited in it so it was a bit pongy, that'll teach 'em.

If he has been driving it without insurance 50ft then he is very stupid indeed. Or had he got insurance but only 3rd party, which is annoying but not as stupid?

Ds seems very glad to be home. Slept not 'well', but much much better than he did whilst we were away. He came into bed and sucked on me for 2 hours this morning though, dozing through a lot of it, so he's still not entirely right, but I did notice that he finally has the point of one of his canines through, so hopefully it's nothing more serious than that. I was starting to think that his ear infection was back, but now I'm not so sure.

Both dc have played nicely in the garden this morning - I really recommend that you should all get a sandpit if you have space for one. I even managed to get a bath by myself whilst they were out there .
We are a bit of a launderette this morning with all the holiday washing and the stuff that we had backlogged from before we went away when the washing machine was broken. At least it is lovely weather for drying stuff on the line.

Think we might go out to try and buy a garden bench this afternoon, as our very old one is pretty rotten and unsafe.

Yes CSWS I think I probably know better than anyone how stupid he was considering who I used to work for. He has had an earful from me already.

I too have a nice line of washing hung out today. It smells so much better when it's been out drying in the sun.