January 2009- toddlers turning 15mths and all that jazz (really just a new thread so DOG can fit it on her poncey iphone!)

[PatTheHammer]

Good enough for ya dog .

And sorry I do realise some are only turning 14 mths and some are nearly 16mths etc,etc......apologies!

All officially toddlers now though i think (well 120's H and HKZ's J are pulling up/taking steps now I think, think mostly everyone walking of some sort!) Scary thought!

Oh and dh and I both have a rather fetching case of sunburn on our noses and cheeks. (We managed to protect dd, but completely forgot ourselves - doh!)

and

Dd learned to say 'bubbles' which is ridiculously cute.

I'll shut up now.

Thanks Books. We are booking up for next year already and looking at buying a bigger awning and canopy so that both us and our friends can bring all the dcs.

Ooo Moose it sounds ace. It's so nice to be there isn't it? AMongst people who just get you and you don't feel like you have to pretend to have a different style to be less noticed. Well, that's how I felt anyway . And to be somewhere so totally family friendly is so so so so so good for the soul.
It made me realise how very un family friendy the UK is overall. Well, how parent and child unfriendly. No one bats an eye lid at a festival/camping if a child hares off up a field with dad's welles on and no nappy, in search of mud to eat, whereas a lady in Pzza Hut nearly fainted when I picked a piece of pizza up that dd1 had droped, blew on it, and gobbled it up . I mean, if she thoughts about it, and looked at the old rag the tables were being 'cleaned' with, she's have realised the floor was no dirtier! Besides, who wastes pizza?

I'm really sorry you had the background worry though, though I'm secretly glad you couldn't leave , now we know he's ok of course! It would have been a shame to mss Back to the Planet. Well done your sister for holding the fort.

Right, I now really really want a camper, and want to go to Harvest at Jmmy's and Solfest.

Glad your ok Books, I am exactly the same with alcohol. I can't sleep. It's like my body wakes me up to punsh me. Hence I don't drink anymore.

Hi Tea Sorry to put you off mdwifery but the reality of shoft work is important to grasp. It is very unfamily friendly. Except the NHS do accomodate part time hours, but on normal hospital shft patterns. So kinda good, but still leaves the problem of findng a childminder who doesn't mind not knowing if and when they are working, and doing 7.30 till about 8.30, day or night. T'is a problem!

Oooh sorry about the typos! This keyboard has had it, the i and anything nearby is well dodgy. ANd my use of my mother tounge seems to be ebbing away in general!

Have fb-ed tree and dog re ittis.

MM sounds fab, and like tree I am secretly glad you didn't get to leave - sounds like ds1 was getting well cared for by his beloved granny in any case. Hope he's feeling better now.

N is just hanging out playing with his toys and going outside every now and then... he really is very independent.

Just went outside to check on him and there was no sign of him ... had a scary moment, and then I found him in his little fort where I have made him a sort of den, reading one of his books - soooo sweet!

Bless him. Adorable small things they do. Not counting the heart failure when there was no sign!

H has taken to sitting on an Ikea plastic step thingie. She reverses onto it with great care and slowly squats till she gets all sat and sorted. Then she just sits there looking really pleased and tapping her feet on the floor. Soooooo cute.

Afternoon Tree and MissJ.

Dh is actually hanging out for a full on travellers van complete with pot bellied stove now! Been ooogling and few on ebay today.

Tree, I know what you mean about feeling relaxed and no-one giving a monkeys what you look like. I came back to earth with a bump this morning when I realised I was going to have to tie my hair back properly and put on some decent clothes to take ds1 to school (fortunately dh did it instead so I was off the suburban hook for a little while longer at least).

I love seeing all the littlies running around in the sunshine dressed in bright wellies, stripy leggings, spotty tshirts and bright hoodies all topped off with a neon tutu and silly hat - and that's just the boys!

I was also at how much freedom at lot of people seemed confident to give their children. I'm not sure I'm able to be that laid back. Need to find some middle ground between neurotic Mummy and "oh dear we've lost the children again" before next year.

Also need to do something about improving my fitness and joint mobility - I'd swear I can actually hear my bones creaking today and my muscles are simply refusing to work. Feel about 110 years old.

Feels good to have touched base with the old me for a while. Am hoping I can manage to hold onto the feeling for a little while and use it to adjust homelife a bit.

MissJ, N sounds so independent. So cute that he's found his own little reading corner. Dd is the complete opposite and having been carried, slung, backpacked and shouldered constantly for three days, she now seems to think she needs to be in physical contact with Daddy (or occasionally Mummy) in order to go anywhere. Mind you she couldn't wander in and out if she wanted to, as she would need to negotiate two lots of back door and a huge concrete step to get into the garden.

I know what you mean moose. I had to concentrate on letting dd1 have a potter around the van at Solfest. I kept havng little flutters of 'wher is she and is there any traffic'.

Given it was a field seems unlikely

Still the worry of getting lost/freak accident involving a hedge or portaloo/bad people to contend with.

Touching base wth old self - exactly. I find, now I am old , that I have many old selfs.
I can go to a festival and touch base with my teens, I can travel and touch base with 20's backpacking, I can look at girlies in a bar/nightclub/posh clothes and touch base with my 20's, and I can shop......and do a whistle stop tour of my whole life!

Actually, I can't do any of those things due to lack of funds - but if I could I'm sure that's how I would find it.

New Model Army - my first gig at 15, in Bradford. Can't remember where now.

I need to go to bed. Not tired though!

Bookmarking... DD has just made an incredible mess with oatmeal. EEK!

Whaddya mean before the tantrums kick in? Dd is capable of some of the most spectacular tantrums I have ever seen.

Best one this weekend involved her starting to scream - because Daddy had left us and gone back to get something from the camper - just at the exact moment that the band stopped playing. Cue lots of turned heads to see where all the racket was coming from. (I mean there's punk and then there's baby screams and I now know which is lounder. [grin)

She then continued to scream, throw herself on the floor and, when picked up by me, smack and headbut me. (Headbutting is her favourite thing when she is cross at the moment. [hmm) I couldn't do anything to settle her, everything I tried seemed to make her worse and she was the loudest most spectacular thing in a huge crowd of sunworshipping hippies! Eventually, I resorted to a dummy (that was the hippy reaction ) and just about managed to swaddle her onto my lap where she conked out almost immediately and fell into a deep sleep for the next hour and a half.

Ah, such peaceful, relaxing, festy memories.

mm - poor ds1

glad fest as good

Dog, you rant away, I completely understand.

We were supposed to have our new bedroom fitted in 7 days. In the end it took them 6 weeks! I can honestly say it was hell on earth. Exactly what you describe. No consideration for the fact that we actually live here or that we had children and dogs. All made worse by the fact that our bathroom leads directly off the kitchen and our toilet room leads off the back porch area so we had the whole downstairs disrupted (and covered in dust/plaster etc) for weeks. Ours managed to crack our bath when they fitted the bathpanel and then try to cover it up with some sealant! I was sooo glad to see the back of them.

I think you just have to grit your teeth and get through it as best you can, with the promise of a lovely long bath in your beautiful new bathroom as a reward at the end of it all. ((hugs))

Looked at some of the festy pictures that people have posted online with dd earlier. She was delighted and kept waving and saying 'look' 'there' 'hello'. Mind you she also said 'Daddeeee' at every weirdly dressed fella in a hat that came on the screen.

She is still wide awake. To say her routine has been a little disrupted would have to be the understatement of the century.

Books, just remembered you asked where I got the tshirts done for the boys' parties.

I bought tshirt transfer paper from ebay (and some from Tesco) then designed to logos myself, printed them out and dh ironed them onto the tshirts. Getting them printed would have be prohibitively expensive and they were only relatively small logos. They won't last forever, but they should hopefully last until the children go up a size at least.

Dh occasionally gets tshirts of his own artwork printed by vistaprint though and I had two done using the boys drawings for his birthday by vistaprint as well. They aren't the cheapest, but we tend to get a tshirt free offer every now and again via email so use those credits up if we have them

Hello Are enjoying very sunny Cornwall but not well got an ongoing problem with a cyst in a not so nice place and has flared up and making me poorly. Need ABs but will need to wait until get home as don't want some random looking at it. Eww.

Dog - Hope A and B better today. And you not going stir crazy in house.

Moose - Glad you had fab weekend, hope DS better.

HKZ - Have you tried those acupressure bands? Really helped me in early pg. Had to wear long sleeved to work though so no one noticed!

MissJ - Would recommend BBSSs for N if Ittis leaking. They are ultra cute and fluffy.

Books - Also laughing at 'enjoy it before the tantrums kick in' although DS already tantruming, not full on kicking screaming ones yet though thankfully. DD
not had one in ages now so think she is well and truly finished. Yay!

Off swimming with kiddies and H shortly. My DS has also started tantrums lately too. I think some of it is his frustration and not being able to communicate what he wants right now and also when he thinks I'm being unfair. Such as getting him out of bath for bed and he wants to keep on playing. Also if he doesn't want to have a nap, he flings himself backwards on way to bedroom.

Sorry you're poorly Lenni Not nice.

tea- enjoy swimming. Flinging backwards sounds VERY familiar.

Lenni- such lovely weather for you, lucky thing. Sorry you are poorly. I think DD may be lulling you into a false sense of security, E does that frequently! I have just accepted that she is high maintainence and we have good days and bad days. Yesterday was mediocre, the locksmith who came to fix the front door yesterday evening (don't ask!)witnessed the home-from-nursery-quick-snack-bath-tantrum-bed-story routine of a monday night and after I came down and started mine and DH's tea he said 'she's quite a livewire isn't she, fair-play to you'

moose-festy sound great, sorry about DS1 being taken ill. DD sounds like she had a fab time.

Dog- sorry you have poorlies too, I hate being stuck in. This week I have to wait in for the Sky man on thurs morning and then washing machine to be delivered on saturday. Yes, this house is cursed and things keep blardy breaking all the effing time!

HKZ- ope you are feeling better my love, chin-up chicken and hope it goes at 12 weeks.

Miss J and books- Your stories about N and A are sooo cute. Z really is at the height of his cuteness at the moment, I love it! Must have a squidge of those babies soon before they are fully fledged toddlers!

Chef- Yes, you can also clean my hovel at any time, I don't like dirt but rarely have the time or energy to tackle it at the moment.

Tree- good luck for you shifts, home improvements sound good.

120- Not sure if I mentioned my running. I am going twice a week now (well started last week) and on sunday did a 5 mile jog/walk/crawl.....Eeeek. Swimming on a friday night too. Hoping to fit in nice monsoon dress for friends wedding in July. Sadly put 12 pounds back on since xmas, so thats all got to come off, and then some....

Well, DS off nursery today as had a temp yesterday and took to GPs who gave him AB's for ear and throat infection. He is grotty at night but trying to be himself in the day bless him!

Update on friends DS, she has roomed in with him for past two nights as he came off his drip on thursday and has been doing really well. If all goes well he should be home this week! They are happy for him t go even though he is still small as he is technically full-term. So pleased for them!

My SIL is also starting to feel better which is great and is going back to work half-days to see if she can cope next week!

Oh, and Z's night at MILs was a bit of a disaster and he was awake from 3.30-6am but we will try again when he feels better. The positive thing was that my boobs didn't notice at all since he hardly feeds at all at the moment

Supposed to be going to a MN meet-up this afternoon if Z feeling better ( funny story but one of the ladies turned out to be married to a guy I work with, but don't really know as he only started in Jan!). We shall see.

Big waves to all, be back later on no doubt as DH out all evening.........again!

Sorry, mega-post! need a new thread soon I guess