May 2009 - A new start. Mine's a large gin please.

[runningmonkey]

Here you go ladies.

Morning all. Happy Mothers' day

Belgina no words of wisdom here I'm afraid. Hope Sausage can help. Hugs to you and your DD.

Llare how are you feeling today?

Hinny carrot cake please Congrats on the btw, I think 3 days a week would be lovely

younger how was ikea?

Ladyh how was your night last night... an improvement I hope

Reggiee ROFL on singstar. How's it all going?

Ses Oman... We'd love to live abroad for a bit. Been investigating Canada 'cos there are quite a few jobs for DH's line of work there, but unfortunately they are all in the really cold and rural bit (Edmonton)

Fi so impressed with your creative / design / crafty stuff. Amazing work. Hope your NS plans come off. May isn't that long away... very exciting

Flippin how lovely is your DH?! He sounds sooooo nice. Bless him.

We are unexpectedly back from Wales today. Travelled up on Friday for friend's Dad's funeral on Saturday, but G was a complete PITA at sleeping in travel cot. In the end he ended in the (small) bed lying crossways whilst DH and I clung onto the edges of the bed. So we couldn't stand another night there and came home. Funeral was very sad and wake was just right. I have to say that in my (limited) experience, the Welsh do do funerals really well.

Anyway, twas my birthday on Friday (thanks all for kind wishes) so I chopped off my hair in celebration, and dyed it too. Looked great. Was so chuffed. I washed it for the first time today, blow dried it as instructed by the hairdresser, and I now look like a poodle. Or pom-pom. Any words of wisdom on how to blow dry your hair smoothly would be most welcome !

Have a lovely mothers' day everyone.

tum No words of wisdom here on smooth hair. I have bedraggled straw hair that is almost always in a ponytail. . I'm so gorgeous and glamorous and elegant (looks down at t-shirt with hole in)

I didn't wish you Happy birthday . Sorry! I'll save you a slice of carrot cake - DD2 has decided that 'we' shall make carrot cake.

This is after we've been to see Alvin and the soddin chipmunks 2. Aaaaaaargh.

tummum about the funeral. Was G more settled sleeping wise now back at home? As far as hair do's go i'm of the keeping it long so I can be really lazy and just tie it up everyday brigade. I do have a hair dryer somewhere.. but it mostly only comes out of my wardrobe when i'm in a rush and can't leave my hair to dry on its own

have just been browsing through new crocheting videos since i last searched some out. Phew there are loads more than there used to be and some extremely good sites now with LOADS of tutorials and patterns. They are all using american crochet terminology which can differ slightly to uk terminology.
The ones I esp liked and 'collected' on Vodpod are here.
This one is excellent to see how to start off
and how to do the 2nd line but he uses what he calls a double crochet which is actually called a treble crochet in the uk.
My pattern uses what they call 'single crochet' in USA but it's called double crochet in UK.
I was amazed by the number of good quality free pattern tutorials this for example
i could spend all day browsing through all the new videos...

llare Thanks for your reply. I'd started a separate thread on this and I got the hymen reply too. I had a think and she did fall, legs open on the skate park yesterday and said she hurt herself between her legs. There was no visible trauma, but maybe the jolt broke her hymen?

singing Alvin and the chipmunks 2: the dcs loved it. We say it in jan or something.

Right. Gotta go now. We're viewing a house in a bit.

Happy Mothers Day all!

Having a nice day so far but hardly seen DH and DS1! They are swimming at the mo so all is quiet. Although I did get a card with I lOve you Mummy written on in DS1s best handwriting (he is only reception so it would have been a tall order).

Better night here too (thank god). R only restless till 4.30am so didn't require too much attention but then up for an hour. After powders, nurofen and a 4oz bottle of formula, we all then slept till 7.30am. All of us!!

flip bless your DH. He sounds wonderful. They can pull it out of the bag sometimes.

Lost fans was also Jack but am swinging to Sawyer now. Jack is more my type TBH (tall with short dark hair) but my god, he is miserable!!

belgina is that 4 bed house you mentionned that you are going to have a look at? Exciting!!

Happy Mothers Day! Hope you're all having a fab day.

DH H got me a lovely card and a box full of kiddie sweets of the sort with way too many e-numbers that I will not be letting him near until he is about 2 10. And H apparently dictated a lovely text for his Grandpa to send me this morning.

flip so not a non-story! Your DH sounds lovely and thoughtful.

Headless sorry for your rough nights. Hope tonight is a further improvement. H had me up at 4am for the ?th time (can't remember) but at least he woke me up by leaning up on me and smiling into my face, instead of crying as usual.

belgina LOL at demise of C's mullet. Tell us about the house you are looking at.

Tummum happy belated birthday! Can't help re the hair, I have the opposite problem, I can only ever get it to go flat & straight. Got any GHDs?

Fi I'll a peek at your crochet links when I get a bit of time. It'll just be wishful thinking really... I'm so awful at knitting I doubt I'd fare much better at crochet.

Right - H demands my attention and I need to prep some potatoes for dinner with PIL this evening.

tumm Sorry, I missed your b'day. Happy belated birthday anyway I'm like spangle, but sounds like what you really need are a pair of straighteners.

house We went to see a 4 bed house for sale down the road, but although it was lovely, it didn't really get either of us excited. We didn't fall in love with it IYKWIM and we're looking for somewhere that we would if we're going to buy. The house that's to let we've already viewed but it sounds like the landlord doesn't like us, because although we've chased them up, they don't seem to reply to our offers. Looks like we might be stuck here for a while.

Hope everyone had a lovely mother's day. The ap was lovely today actually and forced DH and the dcs to do the lunch/dishes and she herself cooked dinner. I also had a nap today, because I'm still feeling a touch delicate from our night out yesterday. Honestly, I must be getting old, I feel like I had far more than the 4 small glasses of wine with a meal that I had

Tummum have you tried Frizzease? You're curly too, aren't you? I can't leave the house without it.

we had a lovely relaxed mothers day here. But DS fell sound asleep after our roast chicken and trimmings lunch so he's still up atm. Tried putting him to bed 20mins ago with 2 stories but after 10mins he came through saying the people upstairs are making noises and i'm scared mummy. so letting him play a bit longer with his Lego and we'll try again.
belgina spangle sounds like you had a lovely time today too

hiya llare

Thx for the tip on Frizz Ease. I am going to invest in some GHDs and FE and hope that helps. I thought shorter hairstyles were supposed to be lower maintenance !

Have just finished the ironing, and am knackered and can't be arsed to pair the socks and put it all away !

Hello!

Fi - must look at your crochet links. I'd love to be able to do something a bit creative!

flippin - referral for Fit for Life sounds like a great plan!
Yay for DH bonus and even bigger YAY for DH thinking of an eternity ring!

hinny - I decided to watch all 3 Matrix films a few months back and gave up in the end. Definitely not as good as I remembered first time around.

Belgina - poor DD1. Does sound like it could be her hymen though.

Tummum - happy belated birthday!
for funeral and G lack of sleep whilst away.
Btw, I hate pairing socks!

LadyH - glad you had a better night but I hope you have a better one still tonight.

Spangle - hope you had a nice dinner with PIL

Sounds like everyone's had lovely Mothers Days. After the non-event of my birthday, I made it clear to DH that I expected a card and present today. He did well
He got O up and changed whilst I slept in til 9am. When I woke up, there was a card on the shelf in the bedroom for me to open and then there were 3 wrapped presents placed around the house for me to find - a plant with a bear, a book and a CD.
O and I then went off to church and then popped in to see my mum. This afternoon DH, O and I went to a nearby pub for a meal which was nice.

O is still not eating properly because of his gums but he's being v brave. It does mean that he's upped his BF a bit so no hope of AF arriving!

O has started clapping this weekend but instead of moving his hands from side to side and meeting in the middle, he moves them up and down so they meet in the middle!

Evening all! Happy Mother's Day!

tummum - belated happy birthday! Another vote for fizzease. My current combination of products is Aussie Frizz-something-or-other 3 minute miracle conditioner (the variety of shampoo seems to be unimportant to my hair), then Frizzease when I get out of the shower, followed by Umberto Giannini (or something!) Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly. I do have GHDs too, and they are great, but I'm not having the time - read being left alone long enough by toddlers and cruisers! - to straighten my hair any more, so I'm going curly/wavy/fuzzy most days. Those of you who met me in London, my hair is looking a bit better now, that was the first day of a new hair cut and I hadn't work out the routine!

ses -loving the clapping!

belgina - hope DD1 is ok. And what a pain about the house situation. Hope something works out for you.

It was an ok Mother's Day here - I got a lie in until 9am, cards and chocolates off the girls, and the promise of a massage or similar from DH (in a salon, not by him!). But then he left at 11.45, so I've been on my own the rest of the day. All ok though, fortunately - we had fun making another new sticker chart for DD1 and her potty untraining. Bed time was remarkably calm, but I am not looking forward to tomorrow morning, DD1 likes to have breakfast and get dressed with DH, not me, and of course he's not here...

Forgot to say fi - thanks for the crochet info! I'll have a look when I'm a bit less tired. Sometimes I feel like I need a hobby other than internetting!

I'm rubbish at remembering stuff!

tummum - I really don't find having my hair short easier at all, maybe it's something about curls/waves. Mine is just abve shoulder length now, and it's as short as I can go without it becoming ridiculously high maintenance.

A is teething like mad right now. The ear infection seems to have cleared up, but now she's grumpy and red-faced, one of the top teeth has now broken through and you can see the other one just under the skin. The SA just keeps getting worse, I'm so glad I have slings, but I am feeling quite frazzled by it all. DD1 did get SA at around the same age, but she was no where near this bad.

Happy mother's Day all! you ladies all deserve to put your feet up, sip a large glass of wine, have a massage, eat chocolates, etc. etc.

Ses, forgot to comment: Oman sounds amazing. i would move there in a heartbeat. imagine the weather . sounds like a lovely mother's day

Tumm, I would have suggested GHD. as for short hair, it's defn more high maintenance for me. I have to keep longer hair because I'm lazy and just stick it in a ponytail when I can't manage it.

Belg, C's hair was a legend. did you say there areFB pics? will have to have a look. oh, and good on yer AP for dinner and cleaning up. also, thanks for the heads up on the anxiety thread. i'm sure i've seen one and will have another look.

llare, how're you feeling today?

flip, I agree with the others your DH sounds thoughtful and lovely.

singin, graham crackers are indeed like digestives but slightly diff flavour, almost cinnamony. we would use them for s'mores: hot toasted marshmallow on top of melting chocolate sandwiched between two squares of graham crackers. heavenly. must have my family send me a box.

Fi, might take a glance at the crochet and be inspired to learn (but do I have the patience?).

ladyH, glad you got some sleep last night and hope it carries on tonight.

Spangle, how sweet of H to wake you up smiling! makes a difference to waking up crying.

IKEA - got some shelves, curtains and blinds for the kitchen which , after a year of renovating, is now looking close to completion. also bought duvets for the girls who will be getting bunk beds in a couple of weeks, duvet cover for us, black out blinds for the girls' room, and... i think that's it. a bit dull but I'm happy how the kitchen's looking now.

today was relaxing, non eventful yet happy. took dd1&2 to a birthday party fancy dress where they were the only 2 fairies to a gang of pirates, spidermen, robots and monsters. they looked so sweet anyway.

flippin, xposted. so how's potty training? dd2 is doing ok. actually was doing brilliantly then yesterday and today had a few accidents. luckily she didn't seem too bothered by it.

younger - Glad your kitchen is nearly done now, that must be good!

Potty training not good at all. DD1 was out of nappies at the beginning of November, almost perfect until just after Christmas, but it's not been great since then at all. She had a UTI but that's all cleared up, but still a lot of dribbling, and a lot of accidents. No idea what's going on, she can have almost perfect days, then the next day she'll go through 4 or 5 changes of clothes. I'm so tempted to abandon it and put her back in nappies, but that just feels wrong, so we're trying training pants for a few days this week.

was it the UTI that changed everything? hope training pants help a bit. it really takes a lot of patience, doesn't it?

I noticed with dd2 that she has great days as well then the next day she'll have loads of accidents and I can't figure out why.

younger, I've always wanted to know: what are s'mores?

I don't think the UTI helped, but things were definitely going downhill before that. But maybe she'd had the UTI longer than I thought? I think some of the problems are behavioural rather than medical, iyswim - some of it, I'm sure, was a reaction to DH going away for a week straight after Christmas, she'd had two weeks of him around all day every day, then the day after we got home he was off to Japan. She is such a daddy's girl right now, a natural reaction to A's arrival I guess.

I'm just struggling with it all a bit because although she does have great days, the bad days are much more frequent and I can't keep up with the washing!

How old is she, flippin? I know that when my DS is ill and tired he tends to have little accidents. I know I was always told not to go back once potty training started, but if it causing her distress then it might be worth it.

s'mores, we used to make them when camping: put marshmallows on a stick and toast until brown over campfire. put square of milk chocolate on a graham cracker, slide hot toasted marshmallow on top of the chocolate and top with another graham cracker (like a sandwich). the chocolate usually melts under the hot marshmallow.
yummy.

good night, ladies.

flip, I agree with llare on the subject.

hope it gets better.