Babies born~September 2007 #57

Woohoo! DH has taken W out for a bushwalk and A is asleep - my first kid free time in 3 months!!

Oz, L sounds adorable with Z! W doesn't really do anything to make A laugh, but he gives her lots of cuddles and she grabs him and squeezes and has a huge grin. So adorable. WTG on the commando crawling. A flops around like a fish out of water on her belly but she is walking around holding fingers now.

MP, N sounds like he is going great with his letters! I gave up with W when he went though his feral tantruming couple of months but he is more civil these days so I might start trying again. Gardens are not winter proof here.

Noni, one of the bubs in my Sept 09 group had bronchiolitis and they were told the same about asthma, then her DH (after 10 years of togetherness) told her that he had chronic asthma as a child - apparently he never thought to mention it! Glad you are feeling better. Where are you moving to?

Ginger, are you going to FB the pics of L asleep in all his gear? Cute! How is J's sleeping now?

A has hit that adorable age of babbling and smiles that makes you clucky for another. She is lots of fun atm. Now she has realised that she can go places (holding hands), she is off exploring - usually to see the dog, to follow W or to look in his room.

We are off to visit the IL's in a couple of weeks which I am actually looking forward to. I know that holidays with kids aren't really holidays but I am feeling so burnt out atm and I know they will entertain W. Since he won't have naps, it is 13 hours of two year old every day with no break. So far this year DH has taken him out for a couple of afternoons and I have had two grocery shopping days with A, but no time to do anything relaxing/fun. I think when we are down south I will go up to Dunedin for a day, visit all the nostalgic places from my uni days and meet up with an old friend who lives there so that will be nice.

ETA Suz, yay for no biting!

i'm so sorry Trill to hear of J's passing. big hugs to you and your mum xoxo

thanks for your advice re: the kinder situation. i sent of the application form to the local feeder one for next year. i really hope he gets a spot. they seem like a lovely bunch who run it- they even run the local chestnut festival every year to raise money for it, which we usually always go to anyway, so i thought it seemed like a good fit iykwim? i just really hope he gets in now b/c a lot of the surrounding suburbs ones (i have heard through friends) have no places available and huge waiting lists. cross your fingers for me girls!

i'm glad some of you girls think your #2 bubs is an angel because mine is the devil!!! i think J was sent to us to cure us of our cluckiness for another once and for all. lucky he's such a spunky little rockstar, because he's trouble with a capital T!

Thanks for your support everyone :hug: It means so much.

G, if this is your feeder kinder/school for your area, they will have to give him a place. But good idea to get the forms in. I will do it with our preschool around his birthday because they don't take enrollments for the following year till October/November but you can put them on the waiting list so they have a rough idea of how many they will have coming.

Oh and LOL at J curing your cluckiness. I bet that will change once he's older and not as bad. E was a shocking 2nd child too ROFL and it didn't stop me from wanting more ;)

Hi girls!

Arte: woot woooo! nothing like some kidlet free time! hope you got time to have a cuppa and a flake out on the couch lol!
and the holiday sounds like something the Dr ordered! although Dunedin....brrrrrrr! LOL! i guess all of NZ is cold though in the winter lol.

G: all my fingers and toes are crossed for L getting a spot. when do you find out?

Suz: wtg with C! you gotta love those days when they tucker themselves out so wholeheartedly. this happens whenever we take DD to the childrens farm or swimming. good way to rebalance the crabbiness.

Oz: i had the braces for *just* under two years. they were meant to be on until june, but my teeth were well-behaved, so got to have them off sooner. have to say that i am despising the retainers though. i guess it is something to get used to...atm i have to wear them 24 hours a day :o

AFM: our cat caught a mouse today and being a phat kat, she just had it wriggling alive in her mouth with obviously NO intention of ending the poor things terror with a quick bite to the neck. so i had to go into steve irwin mode and extract the poor wee thing from her mouth. put it into a container and just stared at it for a bit. DH came home with DD and we showed her, which she loved. and i know that i am bad, but then i made DH drop it off at the bushes by the railway station LOL! we are experiencing some *issues* with mice since the neighbours took off their roof for the reno's. the mice have moved next door...ie our place lol. do you guys have tips for setting up traps in the roof? i can't use bait as we have animals, and dont want DD to get fingers cut off...

cass- eeewwww that mouse story is gross! did you kill it before you dropped it in the bushes? i ahve no idea about traps, that sort of stuff is dh's department. we have giant bush rats here- they kinda look like bilbys LOL it's the main reason why dh is letting me get a cat cos i convinced him that she'll keep them under control. i'm not too convinced she actually will though ;)

trill- oh i didn't know that the kinder had to accept you. that's good to know. i know a lot of the girls in my MG have been rejected form their local one as they just don't have enough physical room at the centre to accept them all so i wonder how that works?
oh great so you reckon i'll get the cluck again when J is bigger? i don't know, i think he may have scarred me for life! i know that his newborn phase definitely scarred dh LOL he still talks about it. dh and J have really connected a lot lately though. they seem to have a secret special code and they pull faces and make noises together and crack each other up. i don't really understand it all- i think it's secret mens business.
so is E still a shocker or is she much better these days? i'm wondering if there's hope for me!

G: nah, the wee mouse's life was spared. i think when it is a one on one kinda thang you get the chance to look them in the eye and connect..so she lives....albeit amongst the rubbish bins of train-dom lol. i remember not feeling ANY connection when we had mouse plague when we lived in the country though LOL!

G, E will be a shocker till the day she dies LOL. Way to many of her personality genes came from her fathers side of the family. MIL reckons she is so much like her MIL (DH's grandmother) and she used to call her the Devil Incarnate, so there isn't much hope for E. However I reckon had E been an only child she would be easier to handle. And I'm used to parenting her now, so she does seem easier to manage kwim? If you are entering L into Kinder for an actual Kinder program that will follow onto school, I'm pretty sure they have to take him. that is going by threads I've seen on here anyway.

Cass, I can look the little bugger square in the eye and then snap their neck myself LOL. We've got some atm too, it's just that time of year that they tend to come inside and I have one persistent little bugger who wont be so gracious as to get into the trap, so we have stare-downs late at night. If you just put the poison in the roof cavity, your pets will be fine. We put poison in the roof for the rats all the time and we've not had a problem with our dog at all. Traps in the roof would be a PITA because you would have to check and reset them everyday so someone would have to be prepared to be up there every day. You'd be best to get DH up there during the day to see if he can see any signs of daylight and block where they could be getting in. Mice only need a gap of 8mm to get into your house. You can get the traps like a box, where they can get in but they aren't killed so you can release them again. I set my old faithful traps behind the lounges in the loungeroom, or down behind the stove - depends on where they are hanging out as to where I put the traps. The kids have never worried about touching them and I have them far enough out of reach anyway so they can't get to them. We have even had poison in the house too - under the stove and fridge and again never had a problem with the kids, but if you have inside pets it wouldn't be a great idea.

Arte, I hope your trip away goes off without a hitch so you can keep your plans. I love the idea of it. I'm hoping to get to Floriade again this year on my own, possibly with just A. I love getting away and having a weekend to myself.

Suz, that's great that nighttimes are a bit better in your house now :) Makes a huge difference to how you feel at the end of the day too I reckon. Uni is easy to manage atm - I have 3 at school already so only A at home during the week so he's easy to work around. I'm hoping to go fulltime once he is at school too.

Oh, I brought one of those 'wee targets' today to put on the toilet bowl for A. I'm hoping that a bit of fun will increase his awareness of the whole TT caper. Not standing to wee was a big thing we had to deal with when L was TT, and he was 5.5 before he was confident enough to stand up to wee. He had an incident while he was trying to do it once and it really upset and embarrassed him, so he preferred to sit - safer that way LOL.

tell me more about the 'wee target' trill. is it called wee man?

Arrrggghhh mice! There was one sitting out on my deck this afternoon! And the cat is VERY interested in the gap by the fridge, so I assume that we have some visitors inside. Last year we threw some bait behind the fridge and oven and it seemed to sort them out.

Trill, W has just discovered the art of peeing while standing up - he refused to go in the potty before DH took him on a bushwalk today because "I want to do it in the forest!" lol

Ginger, the boys sound very cute together!

MD, how are you?

Kid free time didn't last - Miss '20 minute naps are cool' didn't oblige. She is a terrible day sleeper, will usually do a 45 minute and two 20 minute naps in the day. But she has pulled off a couple of two hour naps in the past few weeks so I am hoping she will drop one in exchange for two longer ones. I live in hope....

ah Sherie you're a champ! that info is great! my main concern with poison is the kats. they tend to hang out on the neighbours roof which is lower than ours but connected and i am concerned that that might be how they are catching the mousies (ie through tiny holes as they come and go iykwim).

i so dont want traps with live mice! i want the snappy snap ones lol. nice and quick. i *think* i will force DH into the back roof (they are above the toilet and i'm guessing in the space above the kitchen). hopefully we'll stamp out too much of a mouse house overtake. cannae stand having to hide my food.

Arte: Leila is a fan of standing up to wee...a *slight* quirk of all her best friends being boys LOL! bit annoying though as it means i have to take all her pants shoes etc off for her to wee under a tree.

Hi Beautiful Ladies!

Big BIG enormously HUGE congrats to all of you who have had more bubba's!!! Scarlet is still an only child and ATM staying that way ~ DP and i have just moved to a little country town to be closer to my family as he's off to the mines in W.A soon - 13 days on, 9 days off. I am going to be SO freaking lonely! It's a bit overwhelming but i'm sure it'll be fine. I'm studying Youth work and community service, I've joined every club and class i can think of so far to distract myself ~ I'm even an AVON lady.. or most recently "The AVON Chick", LOL

Hi to everyone i haven't met yet :)

Scarlet is doing very well, We're fully toilet trained & can count to 10 (bar the number 4 which she doesn't like at all & is replaced with an extra 3!...1..2..3..3..5...6.7..8..9..10 *insert massive amounts of cheering and clapping*)..
Tantrums are pretty wild right now but we're working on it!

Can't wait to catch up and hear how all your littlies are Xo

hey everyone..
lp - good to see you on, well done with the tt and counting =)
cassius - lol thats cute that she wants to stand up i thought we would get the same thing with Asha when she saw daddy but not yet..
oz - Asha still goes to daycare 2 days a week thankfully =)
mp - no havnt looked into the councelling side of things yet, i just dont feel ready, but i do think its something we may need down the track..
ended up going to an indoor playland the other day with my bil sil and niece as well as the two kids.. Asha had the best time, William was quite entertained too but i couldnt believe some of the things Asha was doing lol.. she wanted to play with the bigger kids so she was in on the big equipment, must admit i got a bit nervous when i saw her so high up, even tho its all netted in so u cant fall lol... we are going to have her birthday party there, its quite reasonably priced for everything they include and its something different since hers and Williams parties are only a month and a half apart..
anyways i best be off and hang my washing, hope everyones having a great weekend =)

Welcome back LP! Long time no see! That sounds like a hard shift that your DH is on.

Noni, glad you all had a good time at the playcentre.

We had a William day today - went down to the 'city' and took him to the park, then DH took him to the movies to see How to train your dragon and to another park to drive a kids electric jeep. He had a great time. The movie went well, he stayed until 5 minutes from the end when he had to go to the toilet and it wasn't worth going back in. Back at home he was running around being a dragon and breathing fire lol

Hi everyone,
just a quickie from the Jazah - i read a thread written by Michelle71, and i've been crying and feel so sad for her and her littlies. :( will go and give my dh a big squeeze and watch some tv with him.

lp - sooooo excited to see you back!! I've been wondering how you've been. (was it you who was doing some artwork?)

Hope to catch up tomorrow - H hasn't been having her day sleeps for the past week :o , but hopefully gymnastics in the morning will tire her out ;)

have a good sleep everyone

Ahh, caught up after 10 days off!!

Trill - sorry to hear about J. Congratulations on the uni score and your very well behaved kids.

Cass - yay, more pink!! And awesome news on the braces, I still remember eating my first vegemite sandwich after getting my braces off, I felt like my teeth were razor sharp the way they cut through the bread!

Arte - sorry, not much help here on inside activities. The things that keep DD the busiest are dealing with her dolls. Putting them to bed, changing their nappies, reading them stories. She is also really into packing her bags and going off on trips at the moment (ie swimming, shopping, work).

LP - welcome back, missed you!

Suz - welcome, nice to have another Canberran in the thread after all the others abandoned me (MP, MD, Cass....) Glad there were no more biting incidents, we had one on Friday night, can still see the mark on my arm....

Noni - good to have you back, was wondering how things were going with you. Are you moving somewhere with some better public transport for you??

Well DD has headed off to childcare today in her undies. We haven't been brave enough to take her out and about in them yet, maybe on the weekend. Only one accident at home, she seems to really like wearing them now. On the weekend, we progressed to the toilet instead of the potty which makes it a bit easier (for us!). There does seem to be a lot of frequency to it though - I thought I went to the toilet a lot but she can go 4 or more times in between my visits!!

Dh and I had a wonderful 4 days in Hobart. The first morning we slept in until 8:30!!! (Helped by the last two mornings being 5am starts and a late night for mum's surprise 60th - which was very successful). We both ate far too much and the scales were groaning when we hopped on! So nice to be able to get out and about without having to pack bags of snacks and entertainment too!! Was very good to get back home and see DD, I don't think she missed us at all, far too busy with her cousin and going on picnics, to the pool - my dad even took her to the zoo all by himself and when they got home she climbed onto his lap and said 'cuddle for Pa'. He was so proud, must have told us the story 10 times!!

Well better get back and do some more work - must have had a good break from work, I looked at my desk and thought someone had been messing with all my stuff until I remembered I spent two hours on my last day tidying up!

Hi girls!

Sherie: just wondering how you are holding up and to let you know that i am thinking of you xx

Cally: oh wow! that trip sounds like a lot of fun! i am sooo ready for a bit of kidlet free time to wake up in my own time LOL!
we have been sending DD off to kindy as well with undies. she loves it! but the last two times she has had accidents..bummer! hopefully she'll get back on track...:pray:

Arte: that is so cool that W sat through the film! i am really wanting to take leila to see a movie, but not sure if she will be able to sit still long enough lol! how did W go with actually seeing the movie (i'm thinking of the chair height etc)?

Noni: i have taken L to a playcentre thingy once too and almost pooped my pants watching her go on the 'big kids' part LOL! it really tuckerst 'em out though doesnt it? L loves it.

LP: oh wow! that is alot of activities LOL! it's a great way to meet people though...it's a great idea to build up community networks if DH is going to be away. when my DH commuted weekly to wollongong from melbourne i really loved having people i could just 'pop in' on and visit or organise things to do with IYKWIM. helps make the time go faster til DH arrives home!

AFM: all good here. have been working massive today and now am totally flaked. nothing like a deadline to make you dance lol.
DH and i are thinking of getting a double pram...what do you guys reckon? we would be going 2nd hand as we still have the bug and it will have a toddler board, but i am thinking for long daytrips, shopping centres etc...or will DD be ok considering she will be 3??? argghhhh! dont know what to do!!

Cass - would it be easier to just wear the little one if L needs a break from walking - or if she needed to be restrained in the pram!!!

Cally: yeah, but that's the prob with the bug. it is a bassinette for the first 5-6 months...so if i wanted to use it for bubba then DD couldn't at all IYKWIM and vice versa.

although i do have an umbrella stroller that i bought in italy that could do the trick!! hmmmm you are onto something babe!

Cally your trip away sounds wonderful! Well done on the TTing progression, we seem to have stalled, DD doesn't want to go back to nappies and still asks to go to the toilet sometimes but there has also been toilet refusal and some accidents. Can't go backwards but not going forwards either LOL.

LP - so good to see you back here again - I think the mystery members are mostly ppl who were here before but there have been a few name changes, I'm sure you'll work it out if you hang around a bit more :).

Noni, we "found" our local playland recently, and spent a lovely morning there last week. Lucky for me i have DD1 to chaperone Missy E on the big kid's equipment (I sure can't climb in there to rescue her LOL) but often the bigger girls are happy to help the little cutes just because they're cute.

Trill - :hug: You're probably not reading this but I've been keeping you and your family in my thoughts. xxx

Arte - wow on the cinema excursion, sounds like the boys will have to get out together a little more often.

Jazah :hug: - I too feel so sad for Michelle, it's just the most unthinkable thing isn't it?

AFM - well we've had an exciting weekend contemplating decorating possibilities, starting with Missy E's room - it's time for some colour! Fuelled by a trip to ikea for a big girl's bed, first we need to get the glue off the ceiling (long story) and give it a coat of texture paint, then we can do the walls. I've got the sample pots... PINK and my inner feminist isn't even cringing :p. We had (another) enormous clean out and rearrange of DD1s bedroom, so much more space and she's got like a chillout space with a lounge in there now...I woulda loved a room like that at her age!

MD: ooohhh i am so jealous of the room makeovers. we sooo need to go out and get DD a big girl bed, and i too am hoping to whip out the pink for around her fireplace. the room needs a lift of some sort, so am thinking colour.

MD we are thinking DD's room needs some colour. I am in the middle of some home made deco's. I keep meaning to ask you are your BB's all healed from the op now?

Cass I wore DD for a while and had L in the umbrella stroller. We bought the Strider Plus and while a little exxy I absolutely love it.

Jazah I had a cry while reading that thread too, so sad.

LP so good to hear from you!!

Cally sounds like you had a wonderful trip and I am insanely jealous of your 8.30 sleep in lol.

Arte I cant believe W watched almost all the movie. It sounds like he had a very nice day.

Noni L loves the play centre too, we should probably go more often.

AFM not much happening here. Our backyard is being landscaped this week so we are stuck inside. L seems to have picked up "Go away" and is using it when he is angry or doesn't want to do something, its very frustrating. Its morning tea time and L is standing next to me with his bowl and puppy dog eyes lol.

Thanks for asking Oz, yes new BB is healed - still get the occasional shooting pain but I think that's nerves sorta reconnecting, scars are starting to fade a bit. The BB has dropped and looks more like the other one, in fact if it keeps dropping my lovely surgeon will hafta give it a lift LOL. Still too swollen under the arm to try to wear a normal bra just yet though. Psychologically, I'm starting to get past it, I can *sometimes* take a shower etc without even thinking about it, but mostly I still stare in the mirror a lot. My back is a bit of a mess, I have a nasty rash near the surgical site, bit ouchy, and there's a lot of fluid build up behind my shoulder, so I've had to start doing lymphodema massage so I dont' end up with an elephant lady arm. I guess it will all eventually just seem part of the 'normal' way my body feels but lots of weird senstations still.

I am guessing the emotional "healing" will take even longer then the physical MD.

hi girls!

Oz: ooohh landscaping sounds fun!! we are needing to put some hardwearing lawn in. we were thinking of going the fake grass route, but the space is too big and i *think* it could look less than nice. friends have it for their small courtyardy garden, but ours is a bit too big...so real grass all the way.
what are you guys doing?! let me live vicariously!
the strider looks awesome, but we tried it out and because DH and i are both shorties we look a tad silly having to peer over the top LOL!...gosh we are embarrasingly short lol.

MD: will you have to use a pressure thingy for the fluid? (i'm just remembering a mate of mine who had it for the legs when she was post op...).

AFM: we are pretty fine and dandy. had the midwife over and Leila was 'helping' with the stethascope and doppler. she totally gets this serious 'big girl' face on...so funny. now she has decided that she is a midwife LOL! even got the pen and paper out to write down my details lol.

Yay for landscaping ... I've got our new "landscaped" garden fully planned out but we're more than just a bit tight financially at the moment so it's either going to happen frustratingly in little itty bitty stages or not at all...I would love men in trucks to come and do it all for us LOL not going to happen any time soon. There's a place around the corner where they've been doing their front yard for the last 2 months - every weekend something else happens, and it's getting to the looking-awesome stage, so it can be done. The fake grass is a great concept Cass but we asked one of our neighbours who had a little itty bit done and it cost him a fortune. We see him out there every coupla weeks vaccuuming it with his blower-vac :rofl:

Cass, hopefully will get all the new lymph channels going with the self massage etc, but i will probably need a sleeve & glove fitted for plane flights. TBH it was such a massive thing to have done I think my body is still recovering...a few more months and it will have gone back to more of a state of equilibrium I think.

Our backyard isn't level and we want to get a tramp for L. Originally the plan was for my dad and uncle to come and help DH do it but its just to big of a job so we bit the bullet and are paying the professionals. We are also having BIL build us a huge deck in the next couple of months. Its all very exciting and very expensive lol.

The most expensive things are usually the most exciting Oz :D!

So true MD. Its going to make a huge difference to my house and finally 4 years after we built it might just feel finished lol.

Cass I meant to say I am only 5'2' and don't have any probs with the height of the strider. Its quite long though.

oz: hmmmm :think: mebbe i should check it out again...i'm so used to the height etc of the bug that i guess it just feels weird to push something different around...baby bunting here i come!

MD: so true. i keep forgetting that this whole surgery thang was only a short while ago. all i can say from my brief liquidising lymphnode experience was that those buggers are amazing things and can do ALOT of healing, so i guess, like you said, it is just a matter of time :hug:
yeah when found out how much fake lawn actually costs i had a conniption. couldnt believe it. oh, and apparently you are not allowed to call it 'astroturf' anymore...it's 'synthetic grass'. ppl get tetchy about it...i was told to make the faux par at the shops...

hey everyone,
plodding along here, seems like we are finally recovering from the sickness, William still has a cough but the dr says he will prob have that for weeks poor little man.. Hes starting to pull himself up on to his knees now so the fun begins lol he pulled himself up on the back of a ride on toy that Asha was on and pulled her hair!! she was not impressed haha! Hes doing better with food at a bbq i gave him a corn cob to chew on and he really liked it and did well with that as well as hes up to eating pretty much a whole tin of those heinz custards at lunch time..
Asha is a real challenge atm, yesterday she tipped out half a pack of laundry powder, smashed a toothbrush holder in the bathroom, climbed into the cot with William at nap time and tipped out his whole bottle grrr i could go on and on lol, as well as that shes still not sleeping through, she wakes up crying and even once she comes in with us it takes a while for her to settle...
Am very jelous of all this make over and decorating stuff!! cant wait till we have our own place lol one day!!
cassius - how cute leila wants to be a midwife =)
cally - yeh hoping to move somewhere with better public transport and closer to shops and parks etc too..
md - glad your starting to heal and recover xxx Asha wasnt worried at all in the big kids part of the playland lol just me but yeh the bigger girls especially are happy to help out most the boys are too busy running around like a tornado from what ive seen haha!!

Hello everyone!
All the renovations/decorating/landscaping sounds fabulous! Both the boys have gorgeous rooms at our place but I am in the zone of decorating our room and also adding some nice touches to their rooms. Noah has the nicest room in the house… Jacob’s is perfect for a bub but wonder how he will like having a smaller room next to ours later on down the track. It’s a nice room but Noah’s is HUGE and overlooks the back yard. Lucky duck!
LP – good to see you. Been ages. How are your nieces getting along?
All is well here – frantic as always. On the upside I am looking to get a nanny/housekeeper a couple of afternoons a week – she can do house stuff and then pick the boys up… will mean shorter days for them at kindy and less stress for us. I guess I will need it over the yrs too when they are at school… it feels weird that I can have that (ie I thought that was for older ppl LOL) til I realise I am that person now. A woman, in a full on job with 2 kids. Ummm how did that happen???
N is having a sleep over at my mums this weekend… just for a night. It wont exactly be a rest for us as we have J but I think it will be good for them both! I am also keen to give J some more 2 on 1 time with us so that will give him that opp. I find N really dominates when he is around.
J had a terrible night last night – up for about 3-4 hours… he is off to the dr in an hour, sounded like a sore throat. He has no teeth yet so I think he may be getting some too.
I started J at gymbaroo on Monday and he loved it! He is still not crawling and is prob a while off but he rolls around a lot more than N did I think. His solids are going wel – finger foods only the little monkey so try9ing to work out what I give him so he gets some volume of food. My stewed pears with vanilla are a winner. As are salmon steaks and tajines!!! Funny boy! I also made amazing meatballs the last 2 weeks (once w bbq sauce and once w tomato) and he loved them. N on the other hand is so distracted it is hard to get much into him…
Cally – your days in HBT sound amazing. So funny 8.30am is a sleep in! I hear you on not packing a bag of snacks/nappies etc…. I laugh every time I look in my handbag at work – full of crackers, nappies,wipes etc. glamour!

Noni, DH and I have been married for 18 years and have only lived in our own house for 5 of those years (4 of which we were totally broke LOL) so I well and truly hear you on being jealous of the decorating stuff. You can achieve a lot with your soft furnishings, rugs, lamps (to create mood) and Jeepers I wish someone had told me about the removable picture hooks 20 years ago!!! I'm also loving the new generation of wall stickers (that actually peel off - because they never used to) so needless to say Missy E will have a much nicer bedroom than DD1 did at that age. Not that DD1 remembers!

Glad that you're making progress with the solids, if he enjoyed the corn perhaps concentrate a bit more on giving him fingerfoods ala BLS when he first gets up and full of energy, kwim?

MP perhaps the boys will prefer to share a room when they're a bit older, I reckon they will be best buddies, it's fun to have bunk beds or whatever with your sibling - just so long as they each have their own designated space within the room it can work quite well. I'm totally in love with the idea of having a nanny-housekeeper, if you're able to I think you should give it a try. You will know it's working when you're less stressed and enjoying your time at home more than when you're dashing about to get stuff done, kwim?

Cass - I'm LOLing at your astroturf faux pas. Terribly funny that people are so precious about it.

Mp - nanny/housekeeper sounds great. Getting a cleaner to come round to our place has made such a difference to DH and I and made the working fulltime thing a lot easier to manage. Although the tidy up the night before is a bit painful sometimes - always seem to coincide with parent teacher nights at DH's school!

Clare - could you astroturf (;)) a small bit and turn the rest into gardens?

Md - our backyard has happned bit by bit and it is a bit frustrating. One more thing to do (modify the garden edging near my beautiful new keep Miss K in the backyard fence) and then we are all finished except for more plants. DH has been there for almost 7 years. The plan for the next place is to do it at the beginning, but seeing as DH has some pretty wild plans for the house I think the landscaping may have to wait a little bit there too.

Cally, your holiday sounds fantastic! I didn't realise it was kid-free, that would have been relaxing! Are you moving?

MP, the nanny/housekeeper sounds like a good idea, it will take a bit of the load off you and your DH. You do well to manage with your busy job and the boys. I also find there isn't much time for just A, but she seems to compensate on her own - she often stays up for an hour or so after W has gone to bed to play with DH and I.

MD, I was thinking of painting A's room pink, but I can't go through with it! I just can't! So eventually when I get around to doing it I think we will go with a neutral room colour and girl it up with some wall stickers etc.

Noni, glad that W is starting to eat for you. Must be tough with A getting into everything. W isn't too bad for that, he did pull over a chair and break into the cupboard the other day to look for goodies but found the vitamins first so I caught him sneaking one of them lol

Oz, your new deck/yard sounds exciting! Is that the same BIL that had the accident? Is he o.k now?

Clare, my kids have both hated the pram. W barely sits in it and I end up with a walking kid pushing an empty pram so when A came along I didn't bother getting a good double. I got an el-cheapo second (or forth) hand one for $60 for walking to the shop and when we are in the city I sling A and W walks. A will only last a few minutes in a pram so I am finding clothes shopping impossible. I was wondering for ages what you meant about W being able to see the movie - the seats are terraced so everyone can see and then I realised you probably meant people in front. LOL, that just isn't an issue in small towns.

He is doing really well with TT, hasn't had a nappy on for a month now. He has gone as long as a week with no accidents, he was getting lazy for a bit and I forced a nappy back on him which seems to have cured that lol He is very keen to stand up to pee now so I am trying to get him to use the real toilet rather than the potty for that.

In hindsight the dragon movie may have been a bit scary. He had slept though every night for a week until he saw it and since then he has woken every night. And the other day he came running out of the bathroom like a bat out of hell and shut the door behind him and looked at me with a very serious expression and said "There are dragons in there" lol

Hi Girls!

Arte - That's great going with the TT. I wasn't game to put C back in pull-ups, but he's keen again now he's getting more sleep. Plus I went back to giving him chocolate as a reward and that's probably the real reason he's keen to TT again.

Cally - Hi! Are you in ACT or down the Bay? Thanks for the welcome :)

MP - Hope you find the perfect housekeeper and hope the sleepover at Grandma's goes well.

MD - So exciting! I love renovating. Sending lots of healing vibes for you and hope the massage helps.

Noni - Glad W is eating better now, that must be a relief for you.

Cass - When R arrived I just put him in the sling and if C was too tired to walk he went in the pram. I've got a Swallow Beema and just use it without the bassinet, as it reclines flat for newborns. We also use an umbrella pram for C. I couldn't justify the cost of a twin pram.

JaZaH - I hadn't seen that thread, I've got to go read it now.

Oz - I get 'stop it!' when C isn't happy with me. Hope the landscaping looks good.

LP - Hi! I was in here briefly back in 2007 when our bubs were born, but didn't stay long and have changed my username since. Only started posting back here recently.

AFM - Signed up for the BB 12 week challenge on Sunday and have been trying to eat healthy and exercise this week. Busy day today. Dentist checkup and filling, visited my neighbour and her new baby in hospital, went home to put both boys down for a nap, then back out for groceries. Lucky my Mum is visiting and spent the day with us. Both boys were really good, but C's day nap was a bit of a battle and R is constantly soaked with drool and quite grizzley thanks to teething. Off to bed soon.

Arte - no we're not moving, it was just a holiday and both of us had always wanted to go there. We spent the whole time though thinking what Miss K would have thought of it all! I don't think I could to pink painted walls either - stick with neutral, you can always add various bits to make it girlie.
LOL at W's dragon comment! Dd is scared of giraffes and doesn't like Santa's hands in one of her books (we had to read it last night and I had to put my hands over his - they look massive, I'm not surprised she's scared of it!)
Awesome news on the TT.

Suz - I am a little bit south of the Bay, but grew up in Canberra and my parents and two sisters are still there.

Well DD went to childcare in her undies - but came home in nappy with two wet pairs of undies in her bag. She hasn't been interested in wearing undies since, but she did have some 'nudie time' last night and used the toilet without a problem then. In hindsight, maybe not such a good idea to wear undies on first day back after two weeks holiday so we'll see how she goes at home and try again sometime.

re kids getting into things - the hundreds and thousands are now on the top shelf after half a packet ended up on the family room floor!

Toilet training coming along slowly here - wished I'd listened to voice in my own head and not DH"s when he thought it was a good time to start. Still having lots of successes but she's a stubborn little thing and has developed a whim-based resistance to going to the toilet - sometimes she gallops on in and other times it's cranky foot stamping scowling "I don't want to". But doesn't want to wear a nappy anymore either. *sigh*

Cally - oh get it finished so you can plant while it's still autumn! The planting is definitely the fun part! TBH we have areas we can plant into without doing all the rest straight away so I think we'll probably just concentrate on getting some trees in and going first. Apparently the bare root trees will be in soon so you can get a bigger tree for fewer $ so I think that's the way to go.

Arte, I took DD1 to see the dragon movie and parts of it were pretty full on with the firebreathing etc. We've had a few monster fears here too, associated with the light going out at night, and mostly from when they were playing scary monster chasing games at FDC. After the monster games stopped (when I talked to FDC lady about it) she started up on being scared of spiders lurking in the dark. Although we have quite happily eaten tea with Merlin on the telly a few times - few scary monsters in that - but E has never seemed affected by it, but there again hard to tell how much she is paying attention when it's on.

Suz - you sure know how to keep busy, good luck with your 12 week challenge.

Well I've just spent the morning having the 2 hour GTT - it's a bigger glucose load than when you're pg and it was gross, the whole room was spinning, they had to lie me down. Only just starting to feel normal again now, 3 hours later. Yuck!

MD: :o eewwww! that stuff is a challenge even at the pg dose, let alone a crazy 2 hour stint dose....and i repeat: :o

thanks girls for all the feedback re the prams. i am thinking that i will wing it until after bubba is born and see how i feel (and cope lol).

MD, yucko for the GTT. I have had to do that one three times now, very hard to stomach! Is there a suspicion of diabetes or just a routine check?

Cally, bummer about the hundreds and thousands spill - those things get everywhere! (must be thousands of them lol)

Suz, good luck with the 12 week challenge. I am to scaredy cat to join those because I don't want to be the one posting gains lol. I have found a great exercise though **nerd alert** I had a certain Billy Ray Cyrus song stuck on my mind, so I You Tubed it and had the bright idea of (line)dancing along. A loves it so I can do it with her. It has since progressed to all sorts of embarrassing music choices that are fun to dance to.

DH was out tonight so of course I copped the biggest loudest tantrum in ages at bedtime. Fun.

Arte I am growing strange hair in strange places and there is a suspicion of PCOS so getting it checked out...I always thought if you ate enough marshmallows in one sitting it would make you stoned in a really nice way but I think that drink has put me off sugar for life!!! I applaud you for your embarrassing lounge room dancing - it's the best kind IMO and your kids will grow up with some really fuuuuuunnnnkeeeeeeee dance moves :rofl: