Hey, congrats again Bella on the beautiful birth of Madeleine! I can't wait to read a story - can you post a link in here when you've written it? I'm not on the rest of the forum very much at all these days and would hate to miss it
Nay, DH took a little over a week to fully 'recover' from his vasectomy (meaning no pain at any stage and we'd DTD) but he was well and truly back to work at that stage. From memory he had it on Thursday and went back to work on the Monday. He was pretty out of it straight after (he'd had heavy sedation) and nearly passed out when he peed the first time (and I mean, I had to rescue him from the bathroom because he was partially collapsed against the wall!) BUT, we seriously have no regrets, haven't looked back.
Vic, how exciting re a trip to Darwin! I'd love to go back there - we will when the kids are a bit older as we'd camp whilst there. We will probably take Nat out of school for a month and drive up and back in a couple of years' time. I can't get over CJ's language! I too would struggle to remember how old she is - she sounds like a 5yo! (Only with nicer manners than mine )
I am actually wondering if Phoebe's hold on language is a bit behind. Sometimes I am not even sure she understands what I'm saying! Although she can follow simple one-step instructions so I know she hears ok. Her most complex sentence would be for example what I got yesterday, "It's nice to watch Octonauts". (It really did crack me up - she was making such irrelevant conversation.) And mostly her sentences are grammatically all over the place, like just a minute ago she said, "Mummy, I want a on my tail" which meant 'I want my tail on' (she has a strap-on Dorothy tail).
Phoebe is dinosaur-mad. I think if she's still like this in a few months I'll be looking up dino birthday cakes. I have been looking for toy dinos for her (she has a few books and the beloved tail) but they all look so bloody scary! What's with that anyway? There are gorgeous lions, tigers, teddy bears etc but every bloody dinosaur out there (except for Dorothy and Barney) are so freaking evil-looking!
A series of unfortunate events has prevented us from TT this last week, including a broken washing machine, illness (of varied family members) and outside-the-house commitments. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I haven't the capacity to TT with her just yet. The 3-day program looks very sensible but I don't think I can make that kind of commitment just yet, especially having someone else look after Nat whilst we do it, it just isn't fair when these holidays are her last with me before big school. Ah, excuses, excuses.
I'm not coping so well atm to be honest. I am feeling really stretched to my limit which is stupid because I am on holidays. I am just tired of housework, of entertaining children, of trying to be frugal, of being woken up most nights, of trying to fit in the gym around someone else's schedule, not just when I want to go, of a husband who even after 10 years of marriage still doesn't know how to read me and know when to shut up and leave me alone!