Sept 08: How do we like our eggs in the morning? Fertilised, or completely and most definitely unfertilised?

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

A brand spanking new thread where we can chat about the state of our eggs, SWI, our veg patches and any other topic we fancy

I agree on the 18m thing. Up to 12m ds couldn't move, but dd loved bringing him toys and she was the light of his life (still is!). Then 12-18m he was moving and wrecking her stuff, and suddenly its all come good and they chatter away, play together and alongside each other and generally entertain each other.

FP So pleased to hear your DD is on the mend now. I agree with the others about it getting easier when the youngest hits 18 months. My 2 will play happily in the garden together chasing each other on the trikes & trucks. They squabble and have tussles but nothing too serious so far. Oh, DD bit DS the other day as he tried to steal some toast out of her mouth. I think it's safe to say he learnt his lesson, I wasn't really sure who to tell off that time as they were both being so bloomin' daft.

Thank you for all your kind words about dad. I spoke to him earlier and he was about to clean out the garage, not sure how far he got but I get the impression it's now on his mind to not leave behind too much clutter for everyone to sort out. I don't think he forgave his parents for hoarding so much that we took ages to clear it all out! I'll probably chase the palliative care team up tomorrow, my sister has told me what to ask .

Carrie I'd go for the nearest nursery too. Hope the dc's have fun in the students garden this summer!

Starlight for the cake making cock-up.

Becaroo how is your DSIS now? I didn't see the dc's for 3 days when I had my op last year which was weird, although it flew by as I was pretty out of it for 36 hours after the op. Hope she is home soon and feels ok.

ILTMIMI my 2 are a bit feral now the sunshine has arrived. DD ate her banana & choc muffin for supper in the boat sandpit, which is also full up with little bits of general garden debris. And the other day I caught DS poking his fingers in the slug beer traps. They do have lovely rosy cheeks though.

Hi all. Glad to hear people think 2 is 'dooable' - we're not even trying yet and I have doubts about my ability to cope with more than one!

Fanny, you will cope - just think how fast the past 20 months have flown by and how much easier things are now.

The last few days have been a bit bizarre as I thought I was getting a cold but it has not materialised and I have been floored by a horrific sore throat and headache - it must be some sort of sinus/catarrh infection.
Anyway, I packed C off to nursery yesterday and spent the whole day in bed!! Not done that since I was pregnant! I watched DVDs!!!Feeling a bit better today but cancelled my meeting and staying at home for one more day.

For those of you whose LO has moved up into the older toddler room at nursery, have they coped OK?
I am so worried about C as she's moving in 2 weeks. Going from a homely baby/small toddler room with about 10 other children to a room covering 18m to 2.5 yrs, with up to 22 children! The staff are nice but I have visions of very little 'quiet time' for reading, cuddles etc. C is also a bit behind on speech compared to others, and i worry it'll be the kids that shout the loudest that get attention.
And then I think, get a grip - she'll be fine and it's me that needs to get my head around the fact that she's not a helpless baby.

sigh I think I need to be confident/slightly arsey mum and just make sure I make it clear what I expect from them.

Any tips gratefully received.

Have a good day all - I'm back to bed with a cuppa!

mrsarch My dd was fine when she went up a room last month, sounds like the same age range as your dd's nursery. She had 'taster' sessions for a few weeks and didn't bat an eyelid when she finally moved up. Her speech is actually a little better now, I think the older kids chat away and the little ones copy.

mrsarch Agree with meglet that the taster sessions really help, and I think they like the novelty aspect with new things / experiences to explore. Saying that, DD's nursery is set up a bit differently to yours. The 'baby' room is actually divided into two with a connecting door: little babies and big babies, but they still all eat together at meals times. They make the transition to big babies when they are confident walking, and DD has loved it (lots more banging toys!).

meglet dsis is fine....Am going in to see her tonight but she may be home tomorrow! Off the morphine yesterday and sitting in chair but still catherterized til today. Thank you so much for asking, especially with everything you have going on right now....wish I had some experience or advice but I have been very lucky up to now and not had to deal with what you and your dsis are dealng with at the moment.

That being said, I have a friend who is a palliative care nurse if you would like me to ask her anything???

Nice weather today....what to do?????...

DD won't move up until September when she's gone 2 as our nursery is full so the next time spaces become available will be when the older kids go to school (incl. DS so they won't be upstairs together which I'm a little sad about). I'm not worried about it at all though as DD is the kind of kid that will fit in and she already knows a lot of the children up there because of the way our nursery moves them and because of DS. Agree taster sessions do help and her language will come on leaps and bounds once she's with the older kids though.

Thanks for the comments. She is having taster sessions this week and next week. Her carer said she starts off being clingy and sitting on her knee, then she gets a bit of confidence and gets down to play with the new toys.
they also said her speech will probably improve.
It's actually her 3rd room, as she started off in the 0-12m room, then moved onto baby room 2, 12m - 18m - these 2 are connected and share a kitchen for bottle warming, smaller portions etc.
Her next room in 2 weeks is 18m-30m, then after that it's 2.5 - 3 yrs. So it's 12 months in one room and 6 months in another in theory, but she moved into the 2nd room at 11 months and has stayed there until 20m.
All very complicated but they say she is ready to move.
A friend of mine has a daughter who is just 2 weeks older than C yet she went up to the next room 2 months ago. They have put me off a bit as they are not very happy with the room, but I suspect their daughter went up too early and hasn't settled well.

I have arranged a meeting with the room leader on Tuesday and recently completed an assertiveness course in work, so am armed and dangerous

And sorry to ramble, my problems are awfully trivial compared to stuff some of you are coping brilliantly with.

A's nursery is small and in the mornings all the Toddlers and Babies and sometimes the PreSchoolers all play in Baby Room until breakfast which they have in their own rooms. Toddlers is roughly 2-3 and there's 12 max - A will definitely be there in September but mix and match for much of the summer. At the end of the day they sometimes get put together as well so about 1 in 5 times I'll find him in Toddlers. A couple times he's even ended up in Preschool!

Coping with boisterous toddlers is the main criterion (and space, admittedly), so while A could move up quite a lot now, he'll stay with the babies for a bit longer. The staff move about a fair bit so he knows the ones in Toddlers already.

Pacita Seconds on the rotting banana cake recipe. we have to hide bananas from DS and have just found a bunch of almost black ones in the cupboard.

Having our first night without DS, he is at respite for a night and it is eerily quiet without him

mrsarch feel free to ramble & stress . I am having a bit of an out of proportion meltdown at having to wait 3 weeks for a new Crackberry and having to use my ancient phone in the meantime. As I'm at the end of my tether with stress I could rant about anything at the moment .

DD had her first plaster today . She grazed her elbow bumping off a slide so I patched her up with a Mr Bump plaster .

Dad saw the macmillan nurse today. She only took notes but he will probably be going to the hospital next week for a proper check up / scan etc. I have permission to speak to her so she will be getting phone calls from me and my sister tomorrow .

I swore I wouldn't come on MN tonight until I'd planted my sunflowers out... .....

Ok, by popular demand:

Rotting banana cake:

NGREDIENTS

? 2 cups all-purpose flour
? 1 teaspoon baking soda
? 1/4 teaspoon salt
? 1/2 cup butter
? 3/4 cup brown sugar
? 2 eggs, beaten
? 2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
(you may want to chuck in some cinnamon, old spice, walnuts, or get otherwise creative)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended.
5. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.
7. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

To make the muffin equivaent put the batter into a muffin tin. At 170 degrees they are done in about 25 minutes. 12 good sized muffins.

Diego has not been to nursery again either, as he's not recovered from his lurgy. I'm going insane, stressing about not being well, running like a blue arsed fly from work to pick him up from my friends, and then coming home with him in a foul mood. I feel like a bad mum. And I'm exhausted!

Cheers Pacita How much is a cup though and what is the gas mark equivalent?

Anyone finding the heat too much? Robyn is having to sleep without her gro-bag(must buy a 1 tog) and she is so unsettled. Bedroom is like an oven atm so had the fan on before bed. I feel like the heat has just snuck up on us and I'm not prepared yet

Hi Debs75. A cup for me is an ikea mug. No idea what gasmark, though. Maybe a more experienced cook can help us with this?

Yes, the heat is welcome, but I would have liked warning. I need to wax, deal with my trotters and, like you, buy a lower tog bag.

Diego has been ill for the past week, and last night he woke up at 12:30, 3 and up for good at 5:30. I don't know what to do with myself.

made mini blueberry muffins last night and they are yummy. I used half a pack of frozen blueberries and the recipe ILTMIMI (I think) put here. Seems to be more blueberry than muffin in each one but that's ok. Tried some in cake cakes and some not and found the ones without rose better and came out the tin easily enough.
But had some mix left so did 4 big ones too but they didn't rise. Maybe had been over mixed by that point. Also mixture was a lot sloppier than I expected.

I'll post a specific soft fruit muffin recipe here later.

I find some muffin batters are sloppier than others.

Isn't the weather just gorgeous? I already have Birki marks on my feet

Went to see Brendan Cole last night and it was FAB. I actually warmed to him a bit as I've always thought he was a bit of a nob. The dancing was great and he defo outshone the other pro's. Nicole Cutler was his partner. She was technically good, but seemed a bit cold. She's teeny tiny as well. She's got an adult sized head on a child's body (bar the fake tits!)

Right, now off out to buy ds a deckchair. He's bloody OBSESSED with them. Whenever he sees one he goes loopy for it! Homebase and Argos are doing kiddy ones with a little parasol on for a tenner

Hi all. It certainly is a scorcher. Its the weekend too . I want my birki marks. I live in mine. Florecent pink and soooo comfory!
Sounds like you had fun last night ILMIMI .
Ds2 does not go to toddler room till September. However, If it brings on his speech I might ask if its possible sooner. He still has three words but goes days without using them.
Off to enjoy some rays. Check in later potater!!!

End of week one with the extension! All foundations are done, the start building proper next week. I had to comment on the choice of bricks...I agreed that they were indeed bricks. One of the builders commented on what an excellent choice of brick it was...I though he was joking and nearly laughed til I realised he was deathly serious and started complaining about working with inferior bricks!
We had a scorching hot day at playdale farm near scarborough today. Not sure what to get up to this weekend! I've been wearing my favourite pink birkis for the past couple of days. Legs and bikini wax booked for tomorrow, hooray!

oh we went to playdale farm last year on our hols carrie - it was really good and ds1 loed it. Might go back there again this year!

Endoscopy done, feel a bit groggy but glad its over - phew!

Have a great weekend ladies and LO's
x

The Brendan Cole thing was fab mama, the tour was called Brendan Cole Live and Unjudged and has just started its run, so there may be one near you in the next couple of weeks.

Hope you start to feel less groggy soon bec, how long until you get the results?

I lol at your brick conversation Carrie, only because dh moans about some of the bricks he has to use. Bricks made by the LBC being the worst - but the most commonly used. Our brick match is awful, you would never guess it was supposedly the same as the bricks used originally. Luckily the majority of the extension will be weather boarded.

It got even hotter this afternoon and whilst I slapped sun lotion on ds, I didn't put any on myself, hence I've got red shoulders and chest - what an eeijit.

bec have I missed something there with you having an endoscopy...?
We'll def be going back to playdale over the summer too! I need a shower tonight to get all the sand off me, I've already swept the sofa twice as dd is shedding sand everywhere she goes!

ILMIMI I'm so jealous about the brendan cole show! It looks awesome, but the two dates its anywhere near me are a tuesday and wednesday so I have to accept its not going to happen can't wait for strictly to start again!

C fell asleep tonight before I'd even left the room! She spent all day with nana playing out and I picked her up at 3.30 and went to the park where she played for another hour or so! Lovely!
DP putting up her new trampoline tomorrow too then on Sunday we're off to a family fun day at nursery with face painting and lots of fun stuff. Yay summer.

Whispers - what are birkis? Are they like crocs? I live in mine in summer.

Birkinstok sandals...at least that's what I'm talking about anyway! Think it might be time to put my wellies away and get my crocs out too

That sounds like a lovely weekend you're gonna have mrsA. Tonight at prayer time DD thanked God for the babyccino she's going to have tomorrow. Guess we'd better not let her down!

ILTMIMI and carrie I got the results straight away (you only have to wait for results if they take a biopsy) Nothing horrid going on than god, no hiatus hernia either which was my worry. Wasnt a nice proceedure but glad its over. Feel fine now thank you both x

carrie That is sooo sweet! ds1 calls praying "prayering" and only seems to do it when he wants something!

Got LOADS to do this weekend and dont really wnat too.....getting paddling pool out wey hey!!!