Fab Feb 2009: when they're good they are very very good, when they're bad they're todzillas...

[dinkystinky]

New thread for us to chat about our little jekyll & hydes...

Danny is currently stood next to me rearranging my DVD collection - I will be doing a work out to charlie & lola tonight apparently, while DS1 will be watching Billy Blanks Taebo with his pre-bedtime cup of milk and DH's history docu is hiding out with Diego in the city of lost toys...

Good that you dont have much to say littlesez - hopefully it means all is good in your world!

Didnt get the flat - ho hum, back to the drawing board and chasing of rubbish bloody estate agents. Ugh.

I'm sorry dinky They'll be a better one out there waiting for you to find it.

dinky... hopefully the bottle and cup will help a bit, judging by comments the SALT has made I think it's more than just the tongue tie causing the problem though. Piecing together things she's said with what the paediatric consultant told us I think they believe the tongue tie would have loosened over time if he'd been using his mouth properly, so effectively it's a symptom of the problem rather than the cause. I think they suspect oral dyspraxia (not surprising i suppose as i'm dyspraxic and ds1 shows a lot of similar traits to me but it doesn't affect either of us in such an obvious way). No point worrying though, it either is or it isn't and other than help him communicate there's nothing i can do about it.

Sorry about the flat How long do you have now to find something? Here's hoping something turns up soon.

Good luck for next Wednesday SM.

dinky arse about the flat, hope you manage to find something.

SR hope all will be ok with A. As you may recall H has tongue tie and I don't think its affected him at this stage although I do worry a bit that he is not talking. All he says is 'daddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' 'mummeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' and 'teddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee'
The last few days he has mastered 'arse' which we think means Alex (big sister) and 'ace' which is Grace (little big sister or should that be big little sister?)

He is obviously bright (even if I say so myself) but I am a little worried reading about all the little guys (and girls) on here and what they are saying.

DH back tomorrow! Frantically trying to tidy and clean house as much as possible and de-clutter (chuck everything in garage)
He hates mess.
I just hope he likes what I've done in his absence. New flooring in lounge and study/sitting room and painted kitchen. Meant to paint front of house but didn't happen but maybe he can do that.

Almost cleared the boxes of mums stuff which have been piled up in dining room. Really would like to get that room tidy. Can see most of the floor now which is progress.

Hope everyone is doing ok and good luck SM for next Wednesday in case I forget to say it nearer the time

Summer - the crazy NHS speech therapist thinks DS1 might have verbal dyspraxia as he cant pronounce certain sounds yet or gets them mixed up. I did some reading on it and scared myself silly but sounds like you actually know about it with you and DS1 and all.

MoS - Danny has some words but nowhere near as many as DS1 did at this age. I think its a lazy younger child thing. And if you're the youngest of 4 you're bound to be even more lazy And its a boy thing too. Love he calls DD1 Arse

TBH, i don't know that much about it... I was never diagnosed as a child so muddled my way through thinking i was just stupid/clumsy/lazy/naughty (and being told so by parents and teachers). It's only as an adult i've pieced things together and realised I tick almost every box for dyspraxia... luckily it's mild enough that I can function fairly well. As an adult it's the lack of co-ordination and poor muscle tone that affect me most.... carrying A actually hurts me and i can't lift the others at all anymore, I frequently walk into things, fall over and have poor awarness of my own position in space. As a child it was the inability to concentrate and forward plan that caused the most trouble in school and i distinctly remember freaking out every time my mother cut my nails as the sensation completely unhinged me. I find loud sounds quite difficult as well... if somebody shouts at me it all gets warbled and i can't hear them properly.

In ds1's case it's his co-ordination that is affected as well, he could never crawl... in fact he still can't, his legs get dragged behind him if he tries. He can't peddle his trike or bike yet (he's 4) and when he swims he can't kick his legs... one leg goes out to the side while the other goes up and down. He can fall over simply standing still in the middle of a room and has some of the most bizarre accidents i've ever seen. He still finds cutlery difficult... he can't use a knife at all and struggles with his fork (more noticable now as A has overtaken him in self feeding skills) I haven't bothered to get him diagnosed though, if he struggles at school I will but he has parents who understand his limitations which is something i never had so as it stands i don't think a label will be beneficial in any way.

MOS... i'm no expert but if H can make the R, T and S noises you've mentioned i'd imagine his ability to form sounds is developing pretty well, i know those are some of the ones even older children struggle with. Do the older kids speak for him a lot? Sometimes that can make them a bit lazy about learning to speak, it happened to my friends little girl (also the youngest of 4) and it wasn't til the SALT pointed it out that she even noticed that the older three were answering for their little sister every time

That's what scared me silly on the internet Summer as DS1 has some of those traits (basically cant stand loud noises or being yelled at in addition to not being able to make certain noises properly) and can lack spacial awareness sometimes - but then I gave myself a talking too and reminded myself that he's also just a 4 year old boy who gets distracted ratehr easily by more interesting things than looking where he's going and quite a sensitive soul so it might be personality rather than dyspraxia too.

Flat hunting is really getting me down - there is nothing decent out there on the market at the moment and as soon as something ok comes on its taken. Ugh.

Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh!
I've just had to put Jacob in the naughty corner for sitting on Luke's head and he pissed on the floor! Little shit.
WTF do I do when he wee's everywhere but is already in the naughty corner?
I've sent him to his room, but not sure if that's a punishment!
What do you lot think I should do?

sympathy SM... dd was a tantrum wetter too and it drove me bonkers. Never figured out what to do about it though!

oh no, poor you SM
Did he not have a nappy/pants on or did he take them off?
I used to find with DC1 and 2 that the problem of sending them to their rooms is that they have all their own toys and things there so it is not really a punishment.

Hope everyone is ok, just a flying visit as DH arrived back this morning. DS1 just back from a driving lesson so DH is going to come wih me to the funeral directors to talk about mum and dad's gravestone

Sympathies SM. If J is old enough, get him to help clean up by taking his wet clothes off and putting in the washing machine etc - dealing with wet cold clothes is not nice and will hopefully put him off it.

Thanks girls.
mos Jacob has his nappy off the minute he gets up but loves being naked around the house, so if we're at home, he never has pants on!
dinky yeah, I do give him a towel and he dries it up off the floor.
SR yes, I'm def gonna go bonkers! lol
Git.

Hope its been a better and wee free day today SM.

Where is everybody???

Flat hunting misery is continuing. Still seems to be good for my waistline as the stress is helping shift those holiday pounds. Talk about finding a silver lining

dinky oh dear, sorry it'd not going well on the flat hunting front.
How's D's sleeping going? Has he got any better yet?

dinky glad you had a lovely holiday. so sorry you're struggling with flat hunting. i hope you get something soon.

mos i hope it's been wonderful having dh back to help(?).

sm dirty protests next? i hope you're coping.

we've been the house of sick this week, ds earlier and dd today. dp had been in edinburgh until last night so he took a day off to spend with the kids. he thought dd was feeling better so he risked a trip to battersea park so they could come to my office too. got about halfway before dd started to projectile vomit. oops!

any good suggestions for a 70th birthday present for my mum?

hello all

dinky sorry you are having a stressful time with your househunting. Shame we are a bit further out from London as other wise you could have stayed in our house whilst you have the builders in as apart from a couple of days in Oct/Nov on our way to and from USA we won't be here until at least next easter, if not summer.

KBN for my mum's 70th, I paid for her and dad to go on the orient express for a day trip where they had a lovely lunch. Was watching celeb masterchef last week when they were cooking on the OE and it brought back happy memories of mum (and dad) and reminded me of some of the nice things I'd done for them. For another birthday paid for a long weekend in Ireland (where she came from) for her and dad and had also taken them on holiday a few times to Malta and Florida (3 times). Am so glad I did all that. My brothers never took them anywhere.

Hope you think of something nice. Other (less expensive options) are taking her to a show? Does she live near you/like that sort of thing?
Also hope your DC are better soon.

Had a busy few days. Went down to 'mum's today and DH was at all the work I'd had done and then we had lunch (just the 2 of us!) at the Castle where we got married. Was lovely.

Finally got off arse and went to funeral directors yesterday and started ball rolling with gravestone. Lots of bullshit/paperwork to sort but will get that started before I return to KSA. Have to get my brothers to sign documents giving me permission to do so and hope they will do it without any problems (one is an arse!) Off to Bluewater tomorrow and the girls are going to see Toy Story whilst DH and I shop with H.

Hope everyone is doing ok?

KBN Hope everyone is feeling a little better.
mos Those birthday outings sound like were great!

All is fine with us. Went over to my friends with the kids yesterday, and her ds (19m) is exactly how Jacob was at that age, an aggressive little monkey and Luke has a very nasty bite mark on his arm Her ds is a proper boy and brought back all the memories of just how bad ds1 used to be!
Dp is off work for a week now, so no doubt I'll be pissed off and stressed out most of the time

My babies are bak at school tomorrow

Feel like we haven't had a summer at all yet! We took them to Bundoran on Thursday at least so we've done one thing as a family... A loved the beach and would have spent all day there but we'd promised the other two WaterWorld ad the carnival... bless him, he hated the pool (noisy and cold) and was bored witless at the carnival as there was nothing he could do but he didn't complain at all.

Poor ds1 woke at 2am last night with blood gushing out both sides of his nose so we've all had a broken nights sleep. Slightly freaked out as to why he'd sontaneously start bleeding from both sides like that, dd gets nosebleeds but it'a laways from one side and 90% of the time from picking it... ds1 doesn't pick.

Evening all. Summerrain - what a scary experience with DS1. I used to get nosebleeds like that when younger (suffered terribly from sinusitis and it was basically when the pressure really built up) - seemed to be a phase that passed though so fingers crossed that its just a one off for your DS1. And hope the return to school goes smoothly.

KBN - poor you, DP and your kids. Hope everyone is feeling better now. I second the show suggestion for a 70th birthday present - or if she's more of an outdoors type, maybe national trust membership?

MoS - thanks for your kind offer but sadly tied to the area because of DS1's school. Oh well, will find something eventually I'm sure. Glad DH is impressed with all you've managed to do - you've been working so hard since you got here just reading about all you've done has made me feel tired.

SM - hope all good with you and thanks for asking about Danny's sleeping - he generally sleeps through nowadays (7.30 to 5.30/6ish) but is teething at the moment (4 canines pushing through) so generally wakes at least once a night yelling for medicine and bonjela gel - as soon as he's had it though he lies straight down and goes right back to sleep. So all in all, a hell of a lot better than he used to be. Hope the week with DP around isnt too stressful. And sorry to hear about Luke being bitten by your friend's child - I bet your friend was so embarrassed. Though we've all been there - or doubtless will be at some point...

bloody rubbish here. DH is grumpy and am starting to wish he hadn't bothered coming back. He is also very fat. God, that makes me sound awful but I'm so pissed off with him getting fatter and fatter. I know I'm not stealth like (as he has pointed out numerous times) At the beginning of last summer we had an agreement to lose a few stone each (both had around 2 stone to lose, maybe a bit more for him). I lost a stone over the summer which was not bad I thought considering all the crap I had to deal with. DH however put on weight. This spring I lost weight. DH put on weight.
This summer we were supposed to lose weight and I admit, I haven't due to all my stress but I don't have as much to lose. DH kept saying how he was going on the x-trainer I bought him every night and eating healthily etc. Yeah, my arse, he is even fatter!
I know I sound awful but its not just about the way he looks. (although that is a big part of it as don't really fancy him as all his weight is on his stomach which is revolting) He was warned last year by the doctor and nurse to lose weight. He has high blood pressure/cholestral (sp) and has very bad asthma which gets worse when he puts on weight. Also, more importly, he knows (TMI!) that he weight causes me a lot of back pain and has actually contributed to my back getting worse. The chiropractor I've been seeing 3 times a week all summer has said that mine is the worst back injury he has ever seen and the extra pressure is really damaging/has damaged my back.
We've had words a few times and he has promised to lose weight but I'm getting seriously pissed with him now.
Fine, he doesn't care I don't fancy him and don't want sex but surely he should care whether his children are going to grow up without a dad as he is going to drop dead soon if he carries on like this.

God, I know I sound awful but this has been building up for over a year now and I've had enough and can't bear looking at him and he knows it.

sorry for rambling. hope you are all having a lovely weekend and SR hope all goes well for your DC returning to school tomorrow (I feel like I've not had a summer either!) DD1 has always got lots of nosebleeds (I suspect too much picking of nose) Hope your DS is ok

x

oooh, x-posted/whinged with dinky!

Fingers crossed you find a flat soon

supposed to be going to a party at a neighbours house in a bit with old neighbour who was due round half hour ago but not really in the mood for it.
DH will drink too much and I'll end up getting really pissed off with him. He can get quite nasty after a few drinks (probably why we get on ok in a 'dry' country!)

SR Hope ds1 is ok now, sounds very scary.
mos Oh dear. Yes, your dh should be thinking about the health implications of carrying extra weight.
I bet it's very frustrating, and not fancying him anymore is .
You'll have to try it doggy

MoS - remind your DH about his friend who died suddenly recently and how awful it was for his friend's wife and children, and explain that unlike his friend, he can do something to ensure that you and your kids dont have to cope with the loss of him. I know you had great success with Weightwatchers last summer - could both you and DH join online? There are male online members and it will possibly help him change his mentality about his lifestyle and eating habits...

MOS It must be horrible seeing him mistreat his body like that. DP has asthma and finds when he works out and excercises it's so much better so maybe you could use that angle to encourage him.... that way it's not about the weight per se but just the general activity level.

Can sympathise on the nastiness when drunk, dp used to be like that until he realised he was in danger of becoming his dad (nasty alcoholic) and gave up completely. He'll have the odd drink when out now (once or twice a year) but i haven't been around him with drink in him for years (thankfully a i almost walked out before he quit due to the nasty visious behaviour)

dinky.... so sorry you're still stuck in limbo re the flat. when does the work on your house start? Snap on the teething toddler btw, A has been working on the canines for months now and still only has one just peeking through, another just under the gum and a swollen gum by the third.... I'm a bit fed up of it now as he finds it quite hard to sleep when they're sore and i spend all day fighting him to have a nap and then all evening trying to settle him for bed.

ds1 is in school My baby boy looked all grown up in his uniform

hello ladies and thank you for your kind words and support. Feel a bit guilty about what I'd said but it had been building up and had to let it out Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits but just don't really fancy him at the moment and also would like to keep him a bit longer

Had a lovely day out. He is mad about planes and cars so I'd booked for us all to go to Wings and Wheels show at Dunsfold aerodrome where Top Gear filmed and we had a nice day out. Just back and pretty tired due to rather late night. Didn't want to go at first and if anyone had told me I'd have been quaffing shots of different flavour vodka whilst singing karaoke at 1am I'd have thought they were mad

Hope everyone else has had a good bank holiday weekend.