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

Smae here on the poo thing - some squidy and some more solid.

DD has become obsessed with cardigans, jumpers and coats and keeps going up to her room to change into a new one! She's dirtied 6 of them this weekend. She insists on wearing one all the time so yesterday when it was really warm and she had a lovely dress on, it was covered by a coat the whole time which she wouldn't take off!

Becaroo lol at your attempts to be street.

Have developed a serious pecorino cheese addiction. It's like parmesan, but milder, so you can just eat lumps of it. Fabulous for the waistline

T has hardly done a squidgy poo since he was born. Proper, genuine, constipation for his entire life, no idea why. He's pretty good now, but every poo is the approximate size and consistency of a cannon ball. Have to make sure he eats plenty fruit etc.

Carrie, I'm going to be the dissenting voice here about kitchen worktops: I have had mine for 7 years and they are absolutely perfect. What I did do, though, was varnish them rather than oil or wax them. There is a special tough varnish for work surfaces, which you have to reapply every couple of years or so.

Poos vary in consistency, but they are definitely getting a bit more solid. Do you find whole stuff in them such as peas, corn and grapes? I find that Diego sometimes swallows without chewing, which I find slightly worrying.

I have had so many conversations about poo since January when A started his constipation problem!
Used to be that his poo was generally quite 'splatty' and some of the less experienced nursery staff would ask the others if it counted as diarrhoea but they figured it wasn't watery and he was perky so it was OK.

Now it's a constant effort to get fruit and veg and water and juice into him to avoid screaming-level constipation, although lactulose has mostly kept it at tennis-player grunting. We had started cutting down the lactulose but last week it got bad again.
I tried to suggest sitting on a potty might make the straining easier. So far A loves the potty as a scooter and a container but sitting attempts have only resulted in one poo on the doormat and one down the front of the potty...

Meanwhile, had nice Fathers Day yesterday at the Horniman Museum. And have sorted out junk from the spare room - 3 recycling bags, 4 charity shop/textile bags, 2 for Freecycle, and a binfull, plus lots of stuff for the loft. So time to scrape off wallpaper and decorate it for A!

Fraser's poo is always squidgy if he does it in his nappy, if he does it on the potty its firm, sorry for tmi but it makes me laugh at how big and long they are when its in the potty

I found fraser washing his hair today with baby lotion

I am not broody for no 4

at lolly thinking about no.4. Is is practical to go for no.4 (space / money / sanity?). Or will you just take a leap into the unknown?

We had a small poo incident this evening, very unusual for us actually. I thought DD was just being her usual grizzly self in her cot and taking a while to settle down after bedtime .... then I smelt poo. So I went in there to change her nappy and as she was just in a bodysuit she had managed to get some poo out and smudge it across her very pretty pale green all-in-one. Lovely. Although I have to say it was a nice sturdy poo, nothing too icky thank God.

Then DS heard the commotion and peeked out of his bedroom door giggling, I told him he could either help clean up the poo or go back to bed, he went back to bed. Sensible boy.

I have to say (and I daren't say it on the lone parents board as I don't want to bring everyone down) but being on my own is driving me up the wall, and that's putting it mildly. I think I'd be ok if XP saw the kids or they stayed overnight but as I'm either with them or at work it's getting a teensy weensy bit draining now. I'd give my right arm for a night out and some cocktails. Mind you, I suspect this might just be a reaction to dad dying and wanting a dad / grandad figure for the dc's.

Budget tomorrow .

Hello everyone
haven't been on in ages, and it's taken me 2 nights reading to catch up

Meglet - so sorry to hear about your dad. Grief is a strange thing - catches you at any moment, over different things

Carrie and Hopefully and any other swi-ers, sorry no luck so far, but fingers crossed won't be too long. Like everyone else says, any age gap has its good and bad points, no point fretting about it, just enjoy what comes along.

Fanny congratulations on your lovely little boy

Dastardly - snap about the coats etc - dd2 is obsessed by coats, jumpers and shoes, but especially wellies - the other morning when I got her out of her cot she was wearing her wellies! She had obviously reached over and got them - no idea if it was in the few minutes after waking before I got her out, or if she'd had them on all night!!! Coat obsession can be handy at mealtimes though - keeps her clean too!
Her speech is amazing, seems so grown up - says things like "read this book please mum" or "more mox (her word for milk) please mum" (so polite!). Popular phrases include "don't want to" though. But my favourite is "love you mum" which she says lots.

still languishing in refuge, still pestered by ex, still dealing with rubbish insurance from leak in old house in jan

sorry if missed out anyone with big news, was so much to catch up on

Splish yes the shoes thing is big here too. Especially Crocs - some mornings when it's too cold to wear them we have the Crocs battle with DD shouting 'Crocs on' at me. She loves other shoes as well though - her party shoes, her wellies and her slippers especially.

Her language is also very good. She says please and thank you all the time. Doesn't say 'love you' much though but she surprises me constantly with things she knows the words for and her phrasing.

shoe obsession here too, and for some reason she's really taken to the bike helmet I bought for her the other day. She's not even been on the bike seat yet!

I have pictures of her eating tea naked apart from a yellow bike helmet!

Well I've made it through 40. Had a fab weekend, a BBQ on Saturday then a child free afternoon and evening on Sunday at Go Ape and the Spa, it was GREAT

and sice you ask poo is mixed

Hi splishy!

DD fell head first down the stone steps on to the patio last night. I was BF DS and no-one else leapt up in time to catch her tearing out the door - despite there being four adults in the room. It was horrendous watching it. She had a bump the size of an egg, but was thankfully very good with the icepack, and woke easily every hour through the night to be checked. She's fine this morning. So my worst nightmare has now happened and she's none the worse for it. Still want to cry when I think about it though.

Mum and Dad feel really bad about it and are now trying to work out how to put a gate on the patio door. It's a pig of a design and I've tried to work that out myself for ages. To date my solution has been to keep the door closed unless she is playing with an adult. But I now conclude that that adult has to be me!

Oh fanny how awful for you all Glad dd is ok.

meglet and splish big hugs over singleness situations and all that you guys are putting up with. I wish I could do something proper to actually help, but you know that we're here and want to support you as best we can.

hopefully the benefit of a big age gap is the time you'll get with no 2. I read everything that people's dcs are up to on here and I think ds can't do half of that, or if he can he's never had the chance to show me, coz he's never had any 121 time. He'll turn two before dd starts nursery in september, and he'll be 2 1/2 before she's on mornings and will get a good chunk of my time. He adores his sister, he's thriving and growing and I know he can say and do a lot, but he's missed out on time with me. (and I've not been very good at making that time happen) But your #2 (and my #3 if it ever happens!) will get more 121 time than a closer sibling would.

We looked at our finances and concluded that we had to go for the laminate worktop, and we've also chosen to go for a cheaper oven as we didn't need all the bells and whistles of the one we were getting. We looked at how much money we've got left and what we need to buy (flooring, tiles, turf, table and chairs, pay building control etc) and realised we sadly don't have the luxury of choosing to spend more on real wood.

fanny poor you and dd, glad she's ok. I know what you mean about your nightmare happening and it being not too bad. Ds2 fell off the climbing frame last week & put his tooth all the way through the bit just below his bottom lip! Then yesterday ds1 opened the back gate as he thought he heard dh coming home and ds2 got out and was about a metre from the reasonably busy road by time I realised what had happened. I felt sick when I realised he'd got out.

We have rigged a ramp thing up at my parents patio fanny. Sometimes I feel as though I am the only one who can supervise my children best. But in reality I know things couls as easily happen with me around i am not taking sense, but you know what I mean. That must have been so scary debi, we need eyes in the back of our heads.

Your poor DD Fanny, but glad she survived without too much damage. I also trust no one to properly look after DS. Much the same reasoning as Mamamuffin.

So true, mama and hopefully. Sometimes when DH is doing stuff with DD I'll be watching across the room like a hawk, and he'll say 'Stop looking at me like that, she's fine.' But then she'll do something like pull a chair over on top of herself, which I know I would have foreseen and prevented. But what do you do? They have to go out into the big world sometime, and I guess I won't be able to follow them around watching for danger when they're 25, will I?

AF arrived as expected
I'm not at all surprised given the endo pain, but there's still that tiny bit of hope that gets crushed once you know for definite.
I'm out for curry and wine with the girls tonight which will be wonderful therapy!

DD is doing my nut. She's done two poos in her pants today and deliberately weed in her friend's tent, right in front of me, just after we'd arrived and I'd asked her to go to the toilet and she'd refused. She would much rather be in nappies and get on with playing, but at 3.3 and about to start nursery that ain't happening! I lost it and shouted at her today which is not good We've been doing smarties and stuff for when she wees in the toilet, but the bottom line is that she doesn't want to. Its totally a behaviour issue, she's been dry for months. And she prob enjoys having some sort of control over me because if she tries hard enough she can make me totally lose it (evidenced today). She's just so bright and lovely and a delight in every other area. I just wish she would stop being so frustrating with this.
My tip to anyone who tries to potty train and their kid doesn't entirely get it, is to stop for a while. Pushing too hard too early has definitely contributed to the problem.

Sorry that was an astonishingly epic whinge.

Carrie - Have you tried to completely ignore any accidents? Put a stack of clean pants somewhere she can reach them and tell her in a very blase way (whilst screaming inside!!) to get herself a new pair? I hear that kids are very clever in getting attention and don't care whether it's positive or negative, potty training is a great way of getting it.

Well I've just been told on the childminding pages that it's not ok to have kids running starkers around your garden! I am quite shocked really but I suppose I shouldn't be - I personally have no problem with 3 under 2's having no clothes on but apparently I have to think of their privacy. I think it's not even allowed to have two in the paddling pool at the same time - that I AM shocked about.

Sorry about the arrival of AF Carrie, sink a few extra glasses of wine tonight.

Hi Splish, it's lovely to see you, I often think of you all.

I'm surprised it's taken you this long to feel like this Meglet, and I mean that as a compliment. You've had so much going on in your life and with hardly any support. Do you feel ready or want another relationship?

I saw you sneak in the mention of your 40th birthday Ninja. You kept that quiet! Sounds like you had a great weekend

Glad to hear dd is ok Fanny, like others have said I believe I'm the only one who can look after ds properly. And to be honest I think that's the truth

Oh fgs. Talk about how to give children hangups about their bodies. It's PC gone bloody mad isn't it?

DS was running around the garden naked this afternoon and I can't count how many times I had to say 'don't run through the paddling pool, you'll ................... slip. What did I just say? Don't run through the pool '

One of the girls the dc and I met up with yesterday afternoon has just rung and told me that 2 children in her ds nursery have got meningitis B. Her ds has been given prophilactic ABs but I am so worried as Toby is only just getting over a really nasty bout of tonsilitis......am I worrying about nothing???

splish Lovely to hear from you. Sorry things are not better for you x

meglet Thinking of you x

I hate how everyone says that kids are growing up much too soon and kids just aren't kids anymore blah blah and then you get slapped with not allowing them to run around in the nude, they aren't even 2 yet fgs, they shouldn't have a problem at their age but we'll bloody well give them one if we're constantly covering them up all the time.

Apparently you're not allowed to put 2 in the bath at the same time, 2 in the paddling pool is ok.

Sorry Bec, I don't know anything about meningitis B and AB's. How about phoning NHS direct?

It's a bit different to children being nude around eachother, but DH has a bath with ds every night (both of them together in the bath) and when I mention it you can see that some people think it's wrong. The only thing that's wrong is people's warped opinions!

ninja NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

(Congrats, btw!)

FP I used to put one of these playpens across the open patio doors so the dc's couldn't dash out if they were open (usually if it was too hot to play in our 'sun-trap' back garden). Those types of playpen can be used as a room divider (but the gate still works) so quite handy for blocking off things. I never screwed it to the wall, just arranged it around furniture so the dc's couldn't move it. Hope your DD's head is better today.

ninja sounds like you celebrated in style .

ILTMIMI I would like to be in a nice, sensible relationship. But there's no chance to get out and meet people so I'll have to wait for a few years. Will save money on leg waxing anyway, I only have a half leg done these days .

splish Good to hear from you. Sorry your XP is still being an arse, all sounds pretty familiar stuff sadly. Is the refuge ok?

I have just scoffed yet another bag of Galaxy Counters. Wonder what the chances of the government sticking 10000% VAT on them are. They are addictive .