Morning
Somebody purleease come and take my boys for an hour - I neeeeed a breaaak! Love 'em loads, but boy are they lively these days and I have 2 birthday cakes to bake and freeze today.
Dog, dd is exactly the same with nappy changes. Its been a shock to the system for us, as the boys were both totally passive. You could dress them, change them, feed them etc without so much as a whimper of protest. Mind you, we now know why ds1 was like that and ds2? Well he is absolutely the laziest boy I have ever met. If there is the slightest chance that someone else will do it for him, he will let them. He'd still let me dress and feed him now rather than do it himself and he's 6 next weekend
I find with dd that laughter and a toy she doesn't see very often is the best way. I keep a few toys in a toybox she can't get into and then if she's being a pain to change I hand her one just as I lie her down. Also, huge raspberries on her tummy and the 'Pooooo! Smelly feet!' game seem to work quite well. Its all the years of dog training you see, distraction always worked with puppies so I try to use it with the dcs as much as possible.
That reminds me HKZ I said I would help you with your dog bonding and recall problems didn't I. I am so sorry, I forgot all about it.
Remind me again what problems you are having and what specifically you would like to train/retrain and I'll see what I can come up with. I have been so me, me, me recently its about time I shook myself and started to give something back.
Stripey, sorry to hear about your aunt. I understand how you are feeling. We have quite a few toxic family members that we avoid and its a weird feeling when one of them dies, as you have a sort bond, even if it is mainly genetic. For me, I think that every time we lose a family member it reminds me of how big the world is and how small my world is in comparison, iyswim. Hope you are feeling more settled today.
Oh and the Irish funeral thing as well. The number of times we have been persona-non-grata because we haven't hopped on a ferry when some third cousin ten times removed that we met once when we were three has passed. Dad always had a thing about listening to the obits on the local radio in over breakfast and said it was expected and that if you so much as knew the person to nod hello to you would go to the funeral.
Mind you we are often persona-non-grata with both sides of the family because we won't/don't play the game properly.
Tea, sorry to hear about the divorce. Maybe you will feel better though with something definite happening instead of wondering all the time what is going to happen in the long-run. You sound like such a wonderful, loving mum, I'm sure your dc's will be fine.
Tink, hope your girls are feeling better today.
Any ideas on dd's weird behaviour folks? She has taken to sitting up, crawling around the cot and talking in the middle of the night, but then when you go to lie her down she is actually asleep. She is also doing this weird thing where she rolls onto her side, grabs the cot bars and pulls herself against them whilst thrashing about and banging her head. She seems like she's panicking, but again, she's fast asleep. She's too tired for night terrors - isn't she? She is overtired, as she never gets decent daytime naps when her brothers are home and she's been waking at 10 and refusing to go back to sleep till gone midnight. I am exhausted from the constant disturbance, it feels like every time I fall asleep she's off again.