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 still can't post vids on fb either, myjob.

oh my goodness... Q is actually intelligent at something other than walking!! He can colour!! He's been colouring since about 10 months. He holds a pen, pencil, crayon, marker... anything and can make marks on paper. We used to have to hold the paper still for him more. Now we only have to help a bit sometimes if surface is very slippy. We all coloured a cardboard box with pens/markers a few weeks ago. He likes to be pushed around in it so we thought we'd decorate his "car". . He loved it!! Once in a while he tries to suck on a crayon or take a little taste but we say "no" and he stops.

You know... he listens to "no" ALL THE TIME. But it won't work for sleeping!! ugh. GOing to try letting him cry and shhhing him tonight. Last night I did it for the first wake, but he just screamed too hard on the second wake (4am) and I didn't want to get up yet, so I took him in bed with me.

I ashamedly bought a cake called "battenberg" from M&S tonight.... oh my goodness it is delicious. pink and white checked sponge covered in almond paste. mmmmmmm It's probably my calorie intake total for 5 days but I haven't been able to eat with whatever this illness is so I've saved some up

Thanks, Pistachio. I'm only because I made a decision to stick to it from night 1 and failed to do as I told myself I'd do. I'm usually quite headstrong once I've decided to do something and follow through. But a baby/toddler is a totally different story I think if it's after 4am I'll just keep letting him in and make him stay in the cot prior to that.

and about your dd saying the animals are old enough to sleep on their own now! Sweet

argh. DS awake at 2am last night and I gave in after an hour and a half and brought him in bed with me. He then woke twice.

Q isn't eating. I'm taking away the purees (ellas pouches at this point ), which he LOVES and I'm sure he's missing... but he just waits for raisins. Yesterday he would eat a very minimal amount for cm and refused most everything (even his beans.... only wanted the sauce! ). He ate a few bites of peanut butter on brown bread but that's it. No milk until after dinner/before bed, either. Milk in the morning with breakfast, too. He eats an ok breakfast.
Refused dinner ("tea"?) and just kept pointing to the bread then the toaster. He only wants toast!! argh! So I made him a grilled cheese sandwich on the stove (with spinach leaves in between) and he did eat about 2/3 of a half sandwich (1 piece of bread folded in half). So I let him have raisins.

We keep thinking if we just don't give him raisins/or whatever he wants, that he'll eat his lunch/dinner... but he keeps refusing lunch each day. Frustrating!!!

I know they won't starve themselves, but he gets grumpy when he doesn't eat.

oh, he'd eat cereal (wheatabix, muesli, shredded wheat bites, raisin bran, bran flakes...etc) any time of the day. And toast and of course raisins.

Other fruits are usually accepted, too. Peas sometimes. Always spinach.

Pasta is flat out refused. as is rice.

Ah star - food is such a minefield area for toddlers! You need to decide whether to accept that he's a fussy toddler and feed him whatever he will eat to avoid him being grumpy, hoping that he grows out of it at some point, or whether to make him eat whatever you have offered or go without, which might make him more accepting of other foods, but will prob entail many more tantrums and hard work up front. Decisions decisions!

Though I think it's ok to have a few foods that they don't like and to avoid those. Maybe for Q these are rice and pasta? It's funny isn't it, how Q loves toast and hates these, and I've always struggled to get either of my two to eat bread or toast, but they will eat pasta or rice no problem.

Star i have a pretty good eater and tend to be of the school of thought that if she doesn't eat her food she isn't hungry (or she'll learn to eat her food). I think i am pretty lucky that she eats most food i prepare for her though. I am dreading the point at which she starts refusing food just to be difficult as i don't think i will have the heart to refuse her snacks.

She also constantly asks for raisins, i try really hard to be moderate with them, but DH is a total soft touch, so what is the point!?

can i just report that this morning i sneezed and Emma said 'bless you'... where the feck did she get that from????

ohhhh so cute!!! "bless you".

Yeah, cm and dh and I are going to just not offer him anything unless he eats his food. He gets raisins if he eats his meal but if he doesn't, no raisins. And he can't have toast for every meal. I made these apple and chicken balls that my cm recommended tonight and he ATE THEM!! After refusing his eggs of course... and screaming and crying. I put the balls in a bag as if they were a snack and he took the bait!!

star, we're ruthless with food. They HAVE to eat savoury if they want sweet. DS1 is appalling and we've had to concede that he has to try everything but he doesn't have to eat all of everything. DS2 will eat almost everything - like a little locust - so he's no trouble. DD has 2 contrasting examples! but so far she's with DS2 which is a huge relief.
What it has taught me is that DS1 is genuinely fussy - nothing to do with my weaning/feeding techniques or food. That's just the way he is. of course this wasn't obvious till DS2 came along, got treated the same and ate everything! But we live and learn

star - those chicken and apple balls are genius - i have made them for emma in the past and they are wonderfull (and really tasty!) this was when she was refusing to be spoon fed but could not hold a spoon herself!

I put a bit too much batter on them because I think I put too much egg in and could get them to form balls but they are very batter-y chicken apple balls

Poor DD Pistachio

Pepper I hope Q isn't like your ds1. DH and I are quite like your DS1 but are trying to hide it from Q

Star - I think a lot of us are going to be moaning on here about our dc's eating habits over the next few months. S seems to go through phases of eating really well and then refusing all the food he normally loves. It's such a pain isn't it.

S is better now fortunately. He's been really whiny and clingy but I think he's also got a tooth on the way too so was probably feeling really grim. In the end Dp and I compromised and both took half a day off work to stay home with him.

He's eating again, but going through a phases of hurling any food he doesn't want across the kitchen. I'm constantly wiping up bits of mashed potato or whatever off the front of the fridge and cupboards.

SOUnds like a fun day, pistachio.
at mashed potato flung across the room, aubergenie!

I think we just have to make it seem like we don't care if Q eats what we want him to. And put it in a crinkly plastic zip/stick bag so he can reach in and get it (just for lunch). he did so well eating his mains today that he got a chocolate muffin (that he pointed at and nodded a million times ferociously while in M&S) and loads of raisins and a broccoli/pear/pea ellas pouch... he LOVES those. He thought he made it to heaven, I'm sure!

Star, when ds is irritated (if his food is too hot to eat/I have tried to feed him a scoop) he does this swishing thing with his hands to push his bowl away, but a couple of times now he has managed to push it right off the table - cue food all over the floor and up the walls.... I'm so glad we decided not to paint the walls when we moved in!

I've been grumpy mummy the last couple of days, PMT I think, but its hard to explain that to the dcs. Oh well, I'm off to London tomorrow to meet up with my mum and dsis, lets hope a break will cheer me up......

ekka - how were yours after their swine flu jabs? we've had our "invite" but I'm in 2 minds. especially as it's only for the 2 little ones and not DS1 as he's 5.

They have been fine.... Ds is teething so cross and grumpy anyway, dd was fine, except when she caught sight of her plaster on her leg, then she started to whine about it hurting.....

But then they never seem to have problems with jabs anyway (touch wood)

Hi all, man have I been busy this week, I've been working until 10 most nights. Enjoying myself tho. Been to Huddersfield today. I ended up not going to London yesterday, I had too much to do to go. I'm trying to decide which new moby to get, I'm not that bothered about anything too high-tech because I have the work blackberry but I want something with a good camera - anyone got any suggestions?

Pops is still addicted to fruit and veg, very strange!! I've not had the senna tablets since you all told me off and am trying to eat more veg and bran.

I'm sooooo looking forward to the weather being good enough for camping!!! Roll on May!!

We're looking forward to camping too HMM - I need to persuade dp that we need some more kit though. He likes to camp with minimal equipment (he was very disapproving when I bought two folding chairs, but quickly changed his tune once he was happily sitting down with a beer) which I used to be fine with, but with a baby in tow I actually need to be a bit more comfortable.

Got to go ds woken up.

Aubergenie, we just bought one of these for Poppy, it takes up less room in the boot than a travel cot and has raised sides so she cant roll out. I havent inflated it yet but I found some good reviews online. We've just bought a fridge/ freezer too, one you can plug into a car cigarette lighter and the mains. We've always gone non-electric in the past but we're going electric this year

Chicken and apple balls sound nice, what is recipe? Is it AK? My fave AK recipe is Thai chicken noodles, Pops loves it and so do DH and I

Is anyone still bothering with swine flu jabs?