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...

Oooh MrsY - I just had to look up "torpor" in the dictionary! It's my new word for the day. Just realised you've changed your nickname back to MrsY - good to see you back .

Bumps sounds like you had a horrible night with O - so glad you went to the GP and it looks like it can be sorted. Sam's another one that tantrums violently - DD was just noisy! Hope you have caught up on some sleep.

Dinky how's work going so far this week? Was reading with horror at your 4am finish last week...

SM hope you are having a wonderful time - you picked great weather to be away in!

MS lovely to see you back on and hope you are all settled in now. Did you move to a completely different area? F sounds like a happy boy .

DH is away in Scotland from Friday to Monday so looks like a lonely weekend for me without the car! Still, at least the weather forecast is good - we'll just have to make do with the back garden and local park...

The boss is away today and I'm finding it hard to get motivated. Littlesez - Sam's on a 5am wake up phase at the moment, so pretty tired too. I went for a 45 minute run this morning which was lovely, but forgot I also had to walk into work (DH has meeting and needs car) which is about another 45 mins.... so I'm feeling very virtuous, but a bit hot!!!

Better do what I'm paid for and look at some insurance now.... . Cathc you later.

Bumps posted on your other thread that I thought it might be an ear infection as Danny was v like that with his - hope its put your mind at rest about O. Hope he takes to his meds better than Danny did - had to wrestle the little one down to the floor and inject in the meds while he wasnt looking as if he saw the syringe or spoon or bottle he'd take off for the hills.

MS - lovely to see you on and glad you're loving your new house and F is a little sweetie. Cant believe your dd turns 8 so soon!

Spotty - please try not to worry about Harry too much. What will be will be. And FWIW my friend's little boy who was an absolute terror when he was younger (like Harry x 100) suddenly calmed down when he was in a school environment and became a model child. Just keep telling yourself this is a phase and will pass...

Not had my chat yet MrsY - will be taking several days off this week and next week and then having a chat I think when I've stopped being quite so angry about it all.

bumps... glad the gp is checking O out but just to reassure you: A behaves much the same way you described if he's angry or in pain... in fact all three of mine did as babies. I'll never til the day i die forget dd writhing around on the couch in hysterics to the point she couldn't breathe for 2 hours because she had molars coming in.

A has always taken the 'If i'm cross/hurt i might as well concuss myself by head banging as well' approach and gets some very looks when he goes into assault mode in public. If he's teething he can spend most of the day and night crying and writhing like a possessed beast. I'm not trying to dismiss how scary it must be if you've had a calm child first and never experianced this before, please don't for a second think that, but i thought it might help to know you're not the only one coping with an angry stressed toddler. {{{hugs}}}

A was in a&e yesterday. The french doors slamed shut in the wind with his thumb caught in the hinged section. It looked horrendous when it fist happened and swelled within minutes to balloon proportions so i threw him in the car and drove to the hospital to have it checked out. (x-rays were fun with the above behaviour ) They don't think it's broken but they've sent the x-rays on to a specialist just to be sure there are no hairline breaks.

welcome home MS glad to hear life is treating you guys well, wish L a very happy birthday from S.. she still has the card L sent her pinned up on the notice board

Thanks all for your kind words.. I feel abit about it all now, he has had 3 lots of AB and I am doubling up on calpol and I do have my little boy back now and he is no longer possesed.... I feel so silly that I over reacted so much but in my defence I have NEVER seen anything like that... It was so bad, agressive and violent but I now know that he was just trying to say "FUCKING OUCH" .. (I am not even going to mention that it was two weeks since his MMR and I actually told the doctor that I thought it had damaged him lol ..) Dont get me wrong he can tantrum with the best of them but usually they are during the day and not so self distructive..

Tulips poor A really hope it isn't broken and he is on the mend soon.. Your kind words have really helped (me see that I am a loon )

Hay MrsY glad you are feeling better and hope to see you soon

Thanks dinky you helped me calm down yesterday before the dr

Oh Tulips, poor A! I really hope his hand is ok and it looks worse than it feels for the little man. Danny's favourite past time is playing with doors too, no matter how much we tell him not to - DS1 was the same at this age and we had a trip to A&E with him when he did similar with one of his toes (god knows how he managed to do that!)

bumps i didn't get a chance to comment before you went to the dr's but for heavens sake don't be about it. we all come across things we've not seen or experienced before and it can really throw us. that's whats so wonderful about this board - we can ask the others and amazingly often others have been through something completely similar and it fits with the dc's age, sex, temperament.

i also find ds a lot harder 'work' than dd in that he's much feistier and into everything. he hasn't had a meltdown as bad as the one you've described but he's got a cold at the moment and when he wakes up from his sleep he is upset but doesn't want to be held, just rolls around on the floor a lot. i find it quite upsetting that i can't seem to comfort him and think it must be ME and i'm not able to be as much of a mum to him as i want but of course reading on here makes me realise it's so common.

he's also hilarious and so cheeky it makes up for the carnage! favourite game of the moment is for me to yell 'cuddles', he backs off as far as he can and runs laughing his head off all the way for a cuddle. not so funny when i got home last night and was cuddling dd, ds then came out from under the washing line and ran to me obviously expecting to be caught and promptly threw himself headfirst on to the garden. coming up sobbing with a mouthful of grass!

tulips hope A is OK. see. they're nightmares, the lot of them,

dinky you really do sound quite uncharacteristically fed up. i hope you enjoy your time off and have the strength to get some changes from your employers. now, i'll just practice what i preach and draft that email i've been meaning to do...

Tulips- hope A is ok now, I hate little fingers in things [shiver] but how nice your DD still has the card! Bless.

I had fun with F last night. Dh was on nights and F woke up at 12 (just as I turned my light out) and refused to settle until 2am. He was crying, squirming, I brought him in with me and he even got off the bed and ran up and down the landing screaming. I got him milk, cuddled him, gave him calpol, nothing worked until I lost my patience and put him into his cot and pushed his bedroom door to, fully expecting him to scream the house down and he lay down and went off to sleep without a peep.

Explain that?! Weird. Consequently I had 4 hours sleep before the alarm went off and had a full day at work today, coffee fuelled.

Bumps- F had his MMR two weeks ago and the nurse told us in some children it takes 2 weeks for an symptoms to show so that may have contributed to our boys bizarre nocturnal activities recently...

STW We've not gone yet, it's next week. It'll probably be raining!
Tulips Hope A is ok today, poor little thing
bumps Don't be embarassed by your reaction to O's tantrum, IMO it is always better to be a bit OTT than a bit too lax.
It is so unpleasant to see them like that isn't it. I find that sometimes I am truely scared to even make eye contact with Luke incase he flies off on one, and when he does, I find myself in a constant battle with myself not really knowing what to do
It will pass. For a bit. then they will hit 13 and similar will happen all over again.
kbn lol at your ds and his hug game. My 2 have a game they call 'run away'. basically, I'll be sitting on the living room floor, they both yell "run away, run away" and they run to the front door and hide in the corner (where I can't see them), I then call "where's Luke? Where's Jacob?" and they laugh and come legging it towards me and both throw themselves at me for hugs and then we start again. Hours of fun for them, sheer boredom for me!
MS Luke is a bit like that, will be completely mardy but will calm down in his cot on his own. Litgtle wierdo's

I have that interview at the courthouse today for the role of victim/witness support through trials. It's voluntary, but the training will be really useful and the experience will be great.
I also had a call yesterday from a children's centre near here and they want to interview me for an admin role. This is a paid job and I would be very tempted to take it if offered. Dp isn't too keen on the idea, he thinks there's no point in working if we won't be any better off (probably no wages left after childcare), he doesn't realise the mental effect of being nothing but a mum.

I have now finished unit 1 of my course, so will be sending off my answer sheet to be marked once i print it off.

Morning all. DS & DD played tag team wake up last night and i am so tired..

I had an interview for a care in the community job last week. They called yesterday and I have to shaddow a carer today and see what the job entails and if i like it I have a second interview this week.... It is around dp's hours and it is going to be tough. It also means i am going to miss bed times every night which i am so so sad about... but we really need some extra money so I dont really have a choice!!

Good luck today SM.

DS seems to be back to his normal loving cheeky self now. I think that the doctor was correct and he must have been in so much pain to be like that. I really hope I never experiance anything like that again!!!! I can handle his daytime mood swings (apart from the hitting grrrrr)... I hope I havent sullied your impressions of ds. He is the most beautiful, loving, cheeky, georgous little boy that I have ever had the pleasure to meet apart from, it seems, when he is in pain but then isn't that all men

MS i really think the MMR has played a part in all this, and sounds like it effected your ds's sleep at exactly the same time... weird...

bumps Good luck today, am sure you will do fine.
Missing bedtime does suck a bit, but if it fits around dh's work at least the dc's will only forever be in the care of one of you which is good.

Good luck to both Bumps and SM for today and the interviews.

MS - I've experienced the joy of that kind of night, many times, thanks to young Daniel. Hopefully its just a one off for you and F will be so tired tonight he'll be out for the count (as doubtless will you).

Bumps - glad O is back to his usual sunny disposition. Honestly, just take the hitting as part of having a toddler boy - just remain calm and consistent in teaching him its not acceptable and it will sink in... eventually.

KBN, MS, Swampster and THOM - q about the older kids. DS1 is now 4 and all of a sudden has started having the most almighty tantrums (hes normally a chilled chappy) which are even worse than Danny's. Am putting it down to a developmental stage and hormones but did you go through this and if so, what helped you get your kid through it?

good luck for all the interviews over the next week or so, fingers crossed for you all.

bumps hope your little man is getting better now. Hopefully it was just the ear infection that was causing that behaviour. I think they get very frustrated (as do we!) when they can't communicate to us what is wrong.
DS1 (I can't believe he will be 17 in a few weeks!) was really naughty when he was 2/3 years old. He eventually got referred to a child pyschologist due to his tantrums/smashing things up etc and we were told it was because he was very bright and he was frustrated because he couldn't communicate properly.

All crappy here (literally) DD2 was sick Monday pm (at a friends house!) then H was sick yesterday and then yesterday pm I started feeling really ill and obviously had some sort of bug. DH came home early to look after kids and I went to be early afteroon. Wasn't able to eat or even drink water yesterday but have managed half a glass of water and a bit of toast so far today.
H is worn out and sleeping on lap so I can't move!

Hope all ok with everyone x

good lord. woke up this morning to dd retching and puking and then came downstairs to find our fucking dining and kitchen ceilings are leaking again. plumber has just been and announced 'It's a complete mess... the ceilings will both have to come down, i can't do that today' and walked back out

Thanks for all the kind messages about A. His thumb is still swollen and a bit bruised but he's moving it and using it and i haven't heard from the hospital so looks like he hasn't done anything too serious to it.

Good luck to all the interviewees

mos... sounds like what we have here. ds1 had diarrhea and stomach ache all last week and now dd is puking. just waiting for me, A and dp to get it at the same time now which is what usually happens. Hope yours are all on the mend now and give you an easy day to recuperate.

dinky, i think 4 is quite a scary age for them... they're getting ready for school and expected to be so grown up in some ways but really mentally they're still just babies. It seems to result a period of mood swings and hysteria at the slightest upset. Once dd started school though it seemed to settle her alot and she's only likely to tantrum these days if she's extremely tired.

hope all the shitty, puking babies (and mum) get better soon.

good luck with all the interviews.

dinky i completely think 4 is one of those ages. changing from being an old toddler to a proper child and not sure from one minute to the next which they are. we definitely had some problems with dd (i seem to remember panicking on here about it!). a friend with a dd the same age said that she'd been told by an HV that literally as soon as they get to 4 and a half they change again and all is calm (well, as calm as a child can ever be!). whilst it wasn't dreadful with dd for the entire first half of her fourth year there was a definite easing off after 6 months. at the time i compared it to how i imagine going from being a child to a teenager is.

where is everyone watching the footie this afternoon? we're getting pimms and beer in to the office and gathering round the TVs. luckily we have a lot of them here.

oh christ, didn't think the bug could travel 3,000 miles
poor you TITS you've got enough on your plate at the moment.
Bloody plumber, I'd have killed him. Hope you get it sorted soon.

I'm still feeling a bit fragile but dragged my arse down to the nursery today as they had the 'mums songtime'. DH came as well (he had to pick me up as I just couldn't walk there as too wobbly) It was really nice, we sat in a huge cirle on tiny chairs next to our little ones and at the end all the children leaving (to go to big school) got graduation certificates which was lovely. H seemed to really like it which is good as he will go there in September

DH was only saying earlier that when G starts at 'big' school he thinks she will calm down a bit. Oh I do hope so

Oh no, really hope all the poorly ones get better really quickly and your lazy arse plumber came back and did his job Tulips! The mums songtime sounds lovely MoS - and a great introduction to H to the nursery he'll be going to.

Oh dear Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

Interview went well today, I can start shadow-training onc my references have been checked (haven't submitted them yet), but don't think I'm going to do it. there's a 6 day training program taking place in Woking and I just can't get the time for that, so I will take the voluntary position at the school in september and hope to get the job I'm interviewing for on friday.

I've got a maths exam in the morning. I started doing a course equivelant to GCSE ages ago in the hope that being in the creche for a while would help ds1 get used to the idea of being without me for a few hours for when nursery starts. Il'm doing level 2 which is GCSE grade D, which I have anyway, but always nice to stay updated. depending on the employment front, I might continue to level 1 next year which will be A-C grade.

And, I know that I am one of the youngest on this thread, but I found a grey hair today!!!!!!!!!!! Aarrrgggghhhhhh roll on payday, seriously need a tube of dye

Shadowing went really well, I seemed to get to grips with things ok.

The work will be hard going and the hours will be tough in addition to looking after the little ones, but at least childcare will be between dp and I so I wont have that to worry about..

I now have to call the office tomorrow and see where we go from here.....

Hope you are all well...

Great news bumps Glad it went well

well done bumps (and SM even though you're not taking the job)

Quiet here today.........where is everyone?

Me and the boys did some painting on the living room floor (I did also lay out paper), we then each got a baby wipe and cleaned the floor, then the 3 of us got in the bath (was a squeeze) for lots of laugh and splashing. was fun, but then I got out because Jacob kept yelling "mummy's boobies".
Luke is now walking around with an empty bowl shouting "share" and jacob is playing with trucks while shooting look some very strange looks.

maths exam was ok, not what I expected. My tutor said it would be done on computer, was multiple choice and would be questions like "which sum would you use to find the volume of this box . But it wasn't. It was normal questions that required working out, but no one told me I could use a pen and paper to work it out, so I did it in my head, so have probaby failed.
I have called my tutor and explained to her about it and she will put me in to re-sit it the week after next if I haven't passed.

Certainly was quiet on here today. Sounds like you had a lovely day SM. Fingers crossed that the exam results are ok - I remember being absolutely sure I'd failed half my GCSEs and of course I didnt - its just you misremember things after the event sometimes.

Took the afternoon off work and met with the boys to watch DS1 in his football class this afternoon which was lovely as very rarely get to go along. And DS1 was a delight today. Danny less so but he is a teething monster at the moment.

Evening.
glad you got some time off work and got to see ds1 playing his football dinky

Evening all... Well...............

I got the job yay. They were very impressed with me yesterday apparently and they had such good feed back that they want me to start straight away and do the training while I work... how cool is that..

I feel a bit worried about it though. It is all so new and I don't know what i am doing... I will be doing my NVQ and I am sure I will grasp it quiet quickly but it is the emotional side that I am going to struggle with. I found it a real shock last night as to how young some of the clients are.. It was actually quiet upsetting so I need to try and work out how to switch that side of my brain off and not get too attached to things... I am also quiet worried about the male clients and there needs, I know I will be really embarrassed for a while, how do I not let that show and get the job done!!! eak...

At the same time though I am so excited that i have the chance to help people and to put something back into life, and I really want to grasp this oppotunity with both hands. Once I finish the training I could then specialise which would be fantastic as I could really make a difference to peoples lifes.. oh listen to me what a nerd...

I have to go into the office tomorrow to sort out my police checks and to finalise the arraignments so will know more about it all then....

That's brilliant news bumps! Just take the new job a day at a time and am sure it will work out brilliantly.