Jan 2009 - these boots are made for walking... lets just hope they stay in sight!

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had to do a new thread as the old one just wasn't pleasing my computer!

Have spoken directly to the waiting list manager at the ASD team Lenni. She said the waiting list for over 7s is currently 15 months, but they are bringing it down every month and expect it to be around 12 months (from the end of April) until he is seen.

So, his nose eventually stopped bleeding and after a long stint with a bag of frozen sweetcorn (emphatically refused peas on the grounds that they are disgusting) wrapped in a teatowel on his nose the swelling has come down a bit. Spoke to a&e and they said it was our judgement call, so decided to do the ice a while longer, give calpol and see how it goes. Nose still looks straight at the moment, but I suppose we won't know really until the swelling comes down. He's ready for bed now and taking refuge in a famous five book.

I have never seen/heard anything like it in my life. Nearest thing in my experience I can compare it to is a full on dog-fight. The noise alone was incredible. They have never fought like that before. To be fair though, ds1 didn't really fight, he really got done-over by ds2. Am thinking ds2 must have some serious issues around thinking he is stupid for him to have reacted so violently. We are obviously going to have to a lot of work with him on the subject. Sent him straight to bed with no tea and he was asleep within ten minutes, so am also thinking overtiredness and post-viral exhaustion could possibly be implicated here as well. He is also losing one of his beloved easter eggs, which will no doubt cause another furore in the morning.

Am totally horrified that my children could/would behave like that. You spend all your time teaching them right from wrong, but when push comes to shove they just act on instinct and go for each others throats. Am so sad, I stupidly hoped my boys would never get into a proper physical fight, let alone do each other actual damage.

Moose - I have 4 brothers and that sounded like something that happened in my family home from time to time and my parents were traditional church going, middle class parents and were fairly strict with us. You do your best but at times kids will resort to physical in the heat of the moment.

My brother once had me by my throat against the oven and I drew my nails down his arms to make him let go as teenagers when mum was out and we were having a big old bust up!

Moosey sending you big hugs, hope you can get a lovely cool glass of white wine (or whatever your poison is) into that tum of yours soon and put your feet up. You're an amazing amazing mum and it's very difficult circumstances at times for you.

mm - oh no hope he is ok

Well, ds2 just woke up and was instantly inconsolable. I thought it was because he wa so ashamed of what he'd done - wrong! He was still furious at his brother fgs!

Anyhoo, we have had long talks with both of them and discussed how important brothers are to one another and how much they love each other really. They have also both apologised, said sorry and had a hug. They know their punishments now, so I've said no more will be said about it, but that I NEVER want to have anything like that happen EVER again!

Ds1 is complaining of a sore nose (obviously), sore neck, bump to the side of his head and a killer headache. He has been liberally arnica'd and calpolled before bed, but says he can't sleep because he can't breathe properly.

Am totally wrung out now. Dh came home, checked ds1 didn't need to go to a&e then went out for a meeting leaving me with the aftermath. In his defence, he did return bearing a huge bar of galaxy for me and has just cooked my tea.

Tea thanks for sharing that. I am one of three girls and we barely interacted let alone fought as children (although weirdly my elder sister seems to think we were close) so I've never seen or indeed been involved in anything like this before and it was a huge shock to the system. I must sound like such a daft drama queen to you.

Going to curl up and watch last Saturday's Dr Who now before collapsing into bed.

Oh good grief..........I'm losing the plot of this now, far too many posts!

Hope everyone ok, Lenni, Dog and moose and all the coldy and poxy children!

Big waves from coursework and exam hell at the moment. Hope to be back on friday!!!

P.s Had a cuddle with my friend's DS yesterday, he is GORGEOUS. Very tiddly and skinny but very cute! His tiny baby vest TOTALLY swamped him. He is doing well, not putting on much weight but not losing any. He is drinking well and weeing and stuff but not so much on the sleeping front. Poor things! (secrety glad its not me agin).

p.p.s Lenni, my day off is a thursday if that helps?

P.p.p.s Moose- sounds awful, think you coped really well. Does just sound like an average day between me, my brother and sister when we were younger. My brother once hit me in the eye with a high-heeled shoe, I once hit him with a rake and my sister shut his head in the fridge

No lasting head injuries!

I don't think you're a drama queen. Not at all.

I'd still be upset if my DCs did the same as yours did (probably will soon enough I expect). Regardless of the things that happened in my childhood. It's still shocking at the time and scary too if his nose was bleeding everywhere and swollen! Hope all is better by tomorrow and healing well.

Enjoy your Dr Who, lovely H to bring you Galaxy Good man!

Pat - yay! DS does nursery on a Thursday atm but changing his days asap but DD will still be at school on a Thurs so can visit with just DS which would be soooooo much easier although I think T might be better company for E now that T is a bit more sociable! There has been less moaning this week, although I don't hold out too much hope for anything permanent. That girl can whinge for England much as I love her.

I would love to go and see MissJ's neck of the woods sometime, it looks so gorgeous on pictures. Is there anywhere child friendly round there you know of or is the journey too long from you/my family? We can do outdoor stuff in the Forest now too (fingers crossed for weather) though. I'm excited now.

MissJ/Dog/Tree definitely keen to hear nappy suggestions (as ever!) any excuse to talk nappies

DS coughing like a trooper again tonight. Back to GPs again on Monday, can't believe this has now gone on since August last year. He has had 2 long courses of ABs since Easter and each time they've cleared his chest, no wheezing or coughing but both times he's caught a cold straight after and it's gone to his chest again. It is a long running saga now, am fed up with inhalers, icky banana ABs and a poor little DS with a chest full of catargh and sore ears.

Poor DS I know how that feels, had exatly the same with DD for about 2 yrs. What makes it worse is when somebody who doesn't know the ins and outs says 'That's a terible cough, haven't you taken them to the doctors.............'arrrrrrrrrrrrggghhhhh

Yes, the forest has loads of fab places. Hoping to meet MissJ at Puzzlewood which is meant to be good. There is also an excellent mini-railway place and also symonds Yat (beach etc). They are about 50mins from me, not sure about you though, at least 2 hours I would say?

mmmmmmmmmm, galaxy.....trying not to read any food related posts. Started my diet again last week and lost 3 pounds so hoping to get this stone off before wedding on 3rd July...Eeek!

Might wait until summer if 2 hrs from my family and then can bring both DCs down and stay over somewhere. I have relatives in south Wales, not exactly sure where but near Cardiff and they are always after us visiting so could do both together and would pass through that kind of area. Lol at me using my family as bases for MN meet ups!

Glad you've had the cough thing with DD Pat, that is reassuring. I have stayed calm thus far but occasionally have a wobble and come up with some terrible diagnosis. A lot of it is bad luck, with DD at preschool DS catches everything going whereas DD never saw an ill child until she was about 2!

Books - glad DS got seen, sorry for horrid train journey. Hope he is better in the morning.

Ahhh, can't keep up!

Lenni, yes please, come in the summer - you are very welcome to stay here, and DD would love it - pat can come over and they can have pony rides!

books aren't you nearish too? Any chance of meeting me and pat at our 17th meet-up?

MM glad the nose doesn't seem broken.

Looks like another lovely day here.

pat yey, you got a cuddle! How is your friend? Must be really hard when they first come back from the hospital.

tree thanks for the tots bots tip, I am loving the look of those new bamboo AIOs and the c&c website is brilliant! Now am torn between fab colours and just getting plain white.... and would have to get about 12 I think, 6 for each day, because they don't look like they will dry overnight even in my brilliant airing cupboard. So quite an investment...

dog - glad all ok

pat - bless ds

mm - hope all ok with ds's

hi miss j

having a quiet day today

buying dd1 doodle sandals on sat luv em

dd2 is wearing dd1s doodle sandals that she had when little and white letaher sandals 2

dog that's great that all is on track... 26 weeks, how the hell did that go so fast? Maybe Isla is beginning to sense an impending rival?! You do sound calm about bleeding, but I guess you are used to it by now.

The other two nappies (lime and tangerine) and 2 spare booster sets on ebay with 5 days to go, and am happy to take them off and send them to you instead... let me know. Not supposed to sell 2nd hand nappies on ebay but for some reason they let me list them...

Having a slow morning here; meeting friends at soft play later so want to just chill this morning!

I think I've read everything. Morning all.

Dog, glad you have seen midwife - it's good that she can confirm all is well.

Moose, that sounds like a nightmare. I'm another sibling that used to fight constantly with my brother. We were always bleeding in some way. My parents were forever telling us there was something wrong with us. Pretty sure in our case is was 4 acrimonious years of them fighting pre-divorce!! (am in no way implying you are fighting btw!).

Books sorry to hear about the headaches, hope they go for him. I always used to get them in bright sunshine during summer, just couldn't cope with it all when small.

Hi all,

Have sort of read but am unable to retain information - am soooo distracted this week.

But Moose, poor poor you you must have felt so stressed. I hope they arebig friends again, they'll be laughing about it on each others stag do's

Hi to everyone else, hope Isla is better soon DOG. Blimey your pregnancy is flying, but I'm sorry you had the stress of the bleed. You must be due about the same time as eggy lady!

Pat - good news all was ok. Virus is such an annoying answer, but I guess it beats hearing something 'diagnosable'. Is that even a word?

Must go, have much posting, phoning and general decision making to do.

Chosen the stone - cheapie Indian stone in brown/grey mix. Now I need to find some bricks - I we want to have occasional 'features' of some bricks as paving. To get paving stones that look like they came from Miss Marple's garden costs £70 per sq metre - so I guess I better try find some cheap rustic......er.....bricks

Think our fab nursery cupboard doors budget has vanished into the skip war. Arse arse arse.

Morning - oh sorry, afternoon.

Books, sorry to hear ds is poorly. I would have been worried with the head and neck ache combined with a high temp like that. Poor you having to get to the doctors on the train as well. Hope you managed to get his temp down and he has a good night. My dcs always seem to get ill on the one day a week my doctors is closed in the afternoon as well.

Lenni, poor ds. Its so frustrating when the little ones catch everything off their older siblings as it always seems to hit them harder. Neither of my dses had chesty stuff when they were little, but ds1 had enormous lymph nodes in his neck for about a year and a half and was constantly tired and under the weather without actually being ill iyswim. I scared myself silly self-diagnosing him, especially as his symptoms were so typical of one particular horrible illness. Worst thing was, I couldn't get the GP to take me seriously. Evenutally we saw a different doctor at the practice and she referred him and sent him for bloods straight away. Took 6 months for him to be seen by a paediatrician and by then he was better .

Just a thought, has your ds been checked for mycoplasmic pneumonia (walking pneumonia)? I was repeatedly ill with chest infections as a child and got another one each time the abs finished. Long story short, when I was seen at the hospital, they discovered both lungs were 3/4 full of mycoplasmic infection. Its normally a mild self-limiting illness and pretty common, but some individuals don't seem to be able to fight it off as easily and it hangs around for ages (in my case the best part of a year). Its harder to spot than normal pneumonia - they found mine by xraying my lungs, before that they had just been finding a raised white count but no sign of infection. They also nearly missed it because it didn't show up on 3 of the xray angles and could only be seen on a sideways shot. Anyway, the good thing is that it clears up really quickly with the right course of antibiotics.

Dog, glad all is ok with bump. Can't believe you are 26 weeks already. I'm filled with a weird mix of jealousy and relief its not me.

Well, ds1's nose doesn't look too bad this morning, all things considered. It is a little swollen, but I don't think you'd notice if you didn't know iyswim. Thank goodness for ice packs and arnica. Was dreading the thought of having to send him in with a big swollen nose and two black eyes this morning.

Both boys are still quite shocked by the whole thing and apparently did talk about it a bit with dh this morning before I got up. The good thing is that they are both so shaken by it that I think its unlikely to happen again.

Dh and I had a talk last night and are both agreed that really its surprising ds2 hadn't lamped ds1 one a long time ago. We have been saying for years that he must have the patience of a saint to cope with everything he puts up with from his big brother. We think yesterday was finally a case of the worm that turned and ds2 had just reached the end of his tether. No excuse, but understandable, ds1 can drive me way past my tolerance levels sometimes and I'm an adult who should be able to control my temper, so its not surprising that a 6 year old would end up snapping eventually.

Have channelled my stress into cleaning this morning. Had my selection of old toothbrushes out and scrubbed everywhere I could reach. Barely a surface has been spared, doors, door frames, skirtings, picture rails, walls, table and chair legs, cuboards and everything else that didn't move out of the way fast enough. Everywhere downstairs looks and smells lovely, fresh and shiny now, so I've locked the dogs outside and am contemplating never letting them back inside again.

Am knackered now though and I've still got the upstairs to do.

Its open evening at the school tonight and I so don't want to go anywhere near the place if I don't have to, but the boys are really excited about showing me their classrooms (again) and we are being shown around the new buildings, including the new under 5's centre so it looks like I can't get out of it.

Right, have finished my first coffee of the day so had better get on if I'm going to get the upstairs scrubbed before the boys come home.

Oh Books

I spent most of last week with dd clamped onto me and I think Dog is going through the same thing with I at the moment. So I'm hearing you loud and clear. It makes it so difficult to do anything, even make a cuppa or go to the toilet and then when you add another poorly dc into the mix you are bound to be feeling short of patience. I know I definitely didn't manage to be patient, nursey Mum the whole time to my gang last week. (Think shouting at ds1 for not eating an ice lolly fgs. )

Try not to worry about him not eating much, he probably doesn't feel like it. Dd still isn't eating much even now, she had a bowl of porridge first thing, but has flatly refused everything else all day and I really need to be building her up and trying to get her to put some weight back on. Was just talking to dh about it at lunch time actually and he quite rightly said, "she's not going to starve herself, she'll eat when she's ready". I think as long as they're drinking plenty they can cope with a reduced diet for a couple of days.

Hope the fever breaks and they both feel better soon.

What is it with all these poorlies at this time of year? We're usually assured a fairly healthy run between April and the start of the next school year - this just isn't on! Harrumph!

oh no books that must be stressful

hi mm and tree

mm - what a busy bee with all the cleaning